do 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 


HONORABLE 


MISS    MOONLIGH 


BY 

ONOTO    WATANNA 

AUTHOR  OP 

"  A  JAPANESE  NIGHTINGALE  " 
"TAMA"  ETC. 


n  ^ 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

M  CM  XI  1 


BOOKS  BY 
ONOTO  WATANNA 

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COPYRIGHT.    1912.    BY    HARPER   ft    BROTHERS 

PRINTED    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA 
PUBLISHED   SEPTEMBER.    1912 

H-M 


TO 
J.  W.,  L.  W.,  AND  E.  McK. 

IN    REMEMBRANCE 
OF    KIND   WORDS 


2139057 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 


THE 
HONORABLE   MISS   MOONLIGHT 

CHAPTER  I 


HE  day  had  been  long  and  sultry.  It 
was  the  season  of  little  heat,  when  an 
all-encompassing  humidity  seemed  sus 
pended  over  the  land.  Sky  and  earth 
were  of  one  monotonous  color,  a  dim 
blue,  which  faded  to  shadowy  grayness  at  the  fall  of 
the  twilight. 

With  the  approach  of  evening,  a  soothing  breeze 
crept  up  from  the  river.  Its  faint  movement  brought 
a  measure  of  relief,  and  nature  took  on  a  more  ani 
mated  aspect. 

Up  through  the  narrow,  twisting  roads,  in  and 
out  of  the  never-ending  paths,  the  lights  of  count 
less  jinrikishas  twinkled,  bound  for  the  Houses  of 
Pleasure.  Revelers  called  to  each  other  out  of  the 
balmy  darkness.  Under  the  quivering  light  of  a 
lifted  lantern,  suspended  for  an  instant,  faces  gleamed 
out,  then  disappeared  back  into  the  darkness. 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

To  the  young  Lord  Saito  Gonji  the  night  seemed 
to  speak  with  myriad  tongues.  Like  some  finely 
tuned  instrument  whose  slenderest  string  must  vi 
brate  if  touched  by  a  breath,  so  the  heart  of  the 
youth  was  stirred  by  every  appeal  of  the  night. 
He  heard  nothing  of  the  chatter  and  laughter  of 
those  about  him.  For  the  time  at  least,  he  had  put 
behind  him  that  sickening,  deadening  thought  that 
had  borne  him  company  now  for  so  long.  He  was 
giving  himself  up  entirely  to  the  brief  hour  of  joy, 
which  had  been  agreeably  extended  to  him  in  ex 
tenuation  of  the  long  life  of  thraldom  yet  to  come. 

It  was  in  his  sole  honor  that  the  many  relatives 
and  connections  of  his  family  had  assembled,  joy 
ously  to  celebrate  the  fleeting  hours  of  youth.  For 
within  a  week  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji  was  to  marry. 
Upon  this  pale  and  dreamy  youth  the  hopes  of  the 
illustrious  house  of  Saito  depended.  To  him  the 
august  ancestors  looked  for  the  propagating  of  their 
honorable  seed.  He  was  the  last  of  a  great  family, 
and  had  been  cherished  and  nurtured  for  one  pur 
pose  only. 

With  almost  as  rigid  care  as  would  have  been 
bestowed  upon  a  novitiate  priest,  Gonji  had  been 
educated. 

"Send  the  child  you  love  upon  a  journey,"  ad 
monished  the  stern-hearted  Lady  Saito  Ichigo  to 
her  husband;  and  so  at  the  early  age  of  five  the  little 
Gonji  was  sent  to  Kummumotta,  there  to  be  trained  • 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

under  the  strictest  discipline  known  to  the  samourai. 
Here  he  developed  in  strength  and  grace  of  body; 
but,  seemingly  caught  in  some  intangible  web,  the 
mind  of  the  youth  awoke  not  from  its  dreams.  His 
arm  had  the  strength  of  the  samourai,  said  his 
teachers,  but  his  spirit  and  his  heart  were  those  of 
the  poet. 

There  came  a  period  when  he  was  placed  in  the 
Imperial  University,  and  a  new  life  opened  to  the 
wondering  youth.  New  laws,  new  modes  of  thought, 
the  alluring  secrets  of  strange  sciences,  baffling  and 
fascinating,  all  opened  their  doors  to  the  infatuated 
and  eager  Gonji.  With  the  enthusiasm  born  of  his 
solitary  years,  the  boy  grasped  avidly  after  the 
ideals  of  the  New  Japan.  His  career  in  college  was 
notable.  In  him  professor  and  student  recognized 
the  born  leader  and  genius.  He  was  to  do  great 
things  for  Japan  some  day! 

Then  came  a  time  when  the  education  of  the  youth 
was  abruptly  halted,  and  he  was  ordered  to  return 
to  his  home.  While  his  mind  was  still  engaged  in 
the  fascinating  employment  of  planning  a  career, 
his  parents  ceremoniously  presented  him  to  Ohano, 
a  girl  he  had  known  from  childhood  and  a  distant 
relative  of  his  mother's  family.  Mechanically  and 
obediently  the  dazed  Gonji  found  himself  exchanging 
with  the  maiden  the  first  gifts  of  betrothal. 

Ohano  was  plump,  with  a  round,  somewhat  sullen 
face,  a  pouting,  full-lipped  mouth,  and  eyes  so  small 

3 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

they  seemed  but  mere  slits  in  her  face.  She  had  in 
herited  the  inscrutable,  disdainful  expression  of  her 
lofty  ancestors. 

Though  he  had  played  with  her  as  a  child  and  had 
seen  her  upon  every  occasion  during  his  school  vaca 
tions,  Gonji  looked  at  her  now  with  new  eyes.  As  a 
little  boy  he  had  liked  Ohano.  She  was  his  sole  play 
mate,  and  it  had  been  his  delight  to  tease  her.  Now, 
as  he  watched  her  stealthily,  he  was  consumed  with  a 
sense  of  unutterable  despair.  Could  it  be  that  his 
fairest  dreams  were  to  end  with  Ohano? 

Like  every  other  Japanese  youth,  who  knows  that 
some  day  his  proper  mate  will  be  chosen  and  given 
to  him,  Gonji  had  conjured  up  a  lovely,  yielding 
creature  of  the  imagination,  a  gentle,  smiling,  mys 
terious  Eve,  who,  like  a  new  world,  should  daily  sur 
prise  and  delight  him.  As  he  looked  at  Ohano, 
sitting  placidly  and  contentedly  by  his  side,  he  was 
conscious  only  of  an  inner  tumult  of  rebellion  and 
repulsion  against  the  chains  they  were  forging  in 
exorably  about  him  and  this  girl.  It  was  impossible, 
he  felt,  to  drag  him  nearer  to  her.  The  very  thought 
revolted,  stunned  him,  and  suddenly,  rudely,  he 
turned  his  back  upon  his  bride. 

The  relatives  agreed  that  something  should  be 
done  to  offset  the  gloom  of  the  first  stages  of  be 
trothal.  It  was  suggested  that  the  bridegroom  have 
a  full  week  of  freedom.  As  was  the  custom  among 
many,  he  should  for  the  first  time  be  introduced  to 

4 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

the  life  of  gaiety  and  pleasure  that  lay  outside  the 
lofty,  ancestral  walls,  the  better,  later,  to  appreciate 
the  calm  and  pure  joys  of  home  and  family. 

In  single  file  the  jinrikishas  had  been  running 
along  a  narrow  road  which  overlooked  city  and  bay. 
Now  they  swerved  into  shadowy  by-paths  and 
plunged  into  the  heart  of  the  woods.  A  velvety 
darkness,  through  which  the  drivers  picked  their 
way  with  caution,  enwrapped  them. 

For  some  time  the  tingling  music  of  samisen  and 
drum  close  by  had  been  growing  ever  clearer.  Sud 
denly  the  glimmer  of  many  lights  was  seen,  as  if 
suspended  overhead.  Almost  unconsciously  faces 
were  raised,  excited  breaths  drawn  in  admiration  and 
approval.  Like  a  great  sparkling  jewel  hung  in  mid 
air,  the  House  of  Slender  Pines  leaned  over  its  wooded 
terraces  toward  them. 

Gay  little  mousme's,  rubbing  hands  and  knees  to 
gether,  ran  to  meet  them  at  the  gate,  kowtowing  and 
hissing  in  obeisance.  The  note  of  a  samisen  was 
heard;  and  a  thin  little  voice,  sweet,  and  incredibly 
high,  broke  into  song.  Geishas,  with  great  flowers 
in  their  hair,  fell  into  a  posturing  group,  dancing  with 
hand,  head,  and  fan.  Gonji  watched  them  in  a 
fascinated  silence,  noting  the  minutest  detail  of  their 
attire,  their  expression,  their  speech.  They  belonged 
to  a  world  which,  till  now,  he  had  not  been  permitted 
even  to  explore.  Nay,  till  but  recently  he  had  been 
rigidly  guarded  from  even  the  slightest  possible  con- 

2  5 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

tact  with  these  little  creatures  of  joy.  Soon  he  was 
to  be  set  in  the  niche  destined  for  him  by  his  an 
cestors.  Here  was  his  sole  opportunity  to  seize  the 
fleeting  delights  of  youth. 

A  laughing-faced  mousme,  red-lipped  and  with 
saucy,  teasing  eyes  that  peeped  at  him  from  beneath 
veiled  lashes,  knelt  to  hold  his  sake-tray.  He  leaned 
gravely  toward  the  girl  and  examined  her  face  with 
a  curious  wonder;  but  her  smile  brought  no  response 
to  the  somewhat  sad  and  somber  lips  of  the  young 
man,  nor  did  he  even  deign  to  sip  the  fragrant  cup 
she  tendered. 

An  elder  cousin  offered  some  chaffing  advice,  and 
an  hilarious  uncle  suggested  that  the  master  of  the 
house  put  his  geishas  upon  parade;  but  the  father  of 
Gonji  roughly  interposed,  declaring  that  his  son's 
thoughts,  naturally,  were  elsewhere.  It  was  so  with 
all  expectant  bridegrooms.  His  father's  words  awoke 
the  boy  from  his  dreaming.  He  turned  very  pale  and 
trembled.  His  head  drooped  forward,  and  he  felt  an 
irresistible  inclination  to  cover  his  face  with  his  hands. 
His  father's  voice  sounded  in  gruff  whisper  at  his  ear : 

"Pay  attention.  You  see  now  the  star  of  the 
night.  It  is  the  famous  Spider,  spinning  her  web!" 

As  Gonji  slowly  raised  his  head  and  gazed  like  one 
spellbound  at  the  dancer,  his  father  added,  with  a 
sudden  vehemence: 

"Take  care,  my  son,  lest  she  entrap  thee,  too,  like 
the  proverbial  fly." 

6 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

A  hush  had  fallen  upon  the  gardens.  Almost  it 
seemed  as  if  the  tiny  feet  of  the  dancer  stirred  not 
at  all.  Yet,  with  imperceptible  advances,  she  moved 
nearer  and  nearer  to  her  fascinated  audience.  Above 
her  flimsy  gown  of  sheerest  veiling,  which  sprang 
like  a  web  on  all  sides  and  above  her,  her  face  shone 
with  its  marvelous  beauty  and  allurement.  Her 
lips  were  apart,  smiling,  coaxing,  teasing;  and  her 
eyes,  wide  and  very  large,  seemed  to  seek  over  the 
heads  of  her  audience  for  the  one  who  should  prove 
her  prey.  It  was  the  final  motion  of  the  dance  of 
the  Spider,  the  seeking  for,  the  finding,  the  seizing 
of  her  imaginary  victim.  Now  the  Spider's  eyes  had 
ceased  to  wander.  They  were  fixed  compellingly 
upon  those  of  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji. 

He  had  arisen  to  his  feet,  and  with  a  half- 
audible  exclamation — a  sound  of  an  indrawn  sigh — 
he  advanced  toward  the  dancer.  For  a  moment, 
breathlessly,  he  stood  close  beside  her.  The  subtle 
odor  of  her  perfumed  hair  and  body  stole  like  a 
charm  over  his  senses.  Her  sleeve  fluttered  against 
his  hand  for  but  the  fraction  of  a  moment,  yet 
thrilled  and  tormented  him.  He  looked  at  the 
Spider  with  the  eyes  of  one  who  sees  a  new  and  ra 
diant  wonder.  Then  darkness  came  rudely  between 
them.  The  geisha's  face  vanished  with  the  light. 
He  was  standing  alone,  staring  into  the  darkness,  his 
father's  voice  droning  meaninglessly  in  his  ear. 


CHAPTER  II 

ER  real  name  was  as  poetical  as  the  one 
she  was  known  by  was  forbidding  and 
repelling.  Moonlight,  it  was;  though 
all  the  gay  world  which  hovers  about  a 
famous  geisha,  like  flies  over  the  honey- 
pot,  knew  her  solely  as  the  "Spider." 

"Spider"  she  was  called  because  of  the  peculiar 
dance  she  had  originated.  It  was  against  all  clas 
sical  precedents,  but  of  so  exceptional  a  character 
that  in  a  night,  a  single  hour,  as  it  were,  she  found  her 
self  from  a  humble  little  apprentice  the  most  cele 
brated  geisha  in  Kioto,  that  paradise  of  geishas. 

It  was  a  day  of  golden  fortune  for  Matsuda,  who 
owned  the  girl.  She  had  been  bound  to  his  service 
since  the  age  of  seven  with  bonds  as  drastic  as  if  the 
days  of  slavery  still  existed. 

Harsh,  cunning,  even  cruel  to  the  many  girls  in 
his  employ,  Matsuda  had  yet  one  vulnerable  point. 
That  was  his  overwhelming  affection  for  the  geisha 
he  had  married,  and  she  was  afflicted  with  a  malady 
of  the  brain.  Some  said  it  was  due  to  the  death  of 
her  many  children,  all  of  whom  had  succumbed  to 
an  infectious  disease.  From  whatever  misfortune, 

8 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

the  gentle  Okusama,  as  they  called  her  in  the  geisha- 
house,  was  at  intervals  blank-minded.  Still  she, 
the  harmless,  gentle  creature,  was  loved  by  the 
geishas;  and,  as  far  as  it  lay  in  her  power,  she  was 
their  friend,  and  often  saved  them  from  the  wrath 
of  Matsuda.  It  was  into  her  empty  bosom  the  little 
Moonlight  had  crept  and  found  a  warm  and  loving 
home.  With  a  yearning  as  deep  as  though  the  child 
were  her  own,  the  wife  of  Matsuda  watched  over  the 
child.  It  was  under  her  tutelage  that  Moonlight 
learned  all  the  arts  of  an  accomplished  geisha.  In 
her  time  the  wife  of  Matsuda  had  been  very  fa 
mous,  too,  and  no  one  knew  better  than  she,  soft  of 
mind  and  witless  as  she  was  at  times,  the  dances  and 
the  songs  of  the  geisha-house. 

Matsuda  had  watched  with  some  degree  of  irrita 
tion,  not  unmixed  with  a  peculiar  jealousy,  his  wife's 
absorption  in  the  tiny  Moonlight.  He  did  not  ap 
prove  of  gentle  treatment  toward  a  mere  apprentice. 
It  was  only  by  harsh  measures  that  a  girl  could 
properly  learn  the  severe  profession.  Later,  when 
she  had  mastered  all  the  intricate  arts  and  graces, 
then,  perhaps,  one  might  prove  lenient.  It  was  no 
uncommon  thing  for  a  geisha  to  be  pampered  and 
spoiled,  but  an  apprentice,  never! 

However,  the  child  seemed  to  make  happier  the 
lot  of  the  beloved  Okusama,  and  there  was  nothing 
to  be  done  about  the  matter. 

Disliking  the  child,  Matsuda  nevertheless  recog- 

9 


THE    HONORABL.E    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

nized  from  the  first  her  undoubted  beauty,  the  thing 
which  had  induced  him,  in  fact,  to  pay  an  exceptional 
price  to  her  guardians  for  her.  He  had  little  faith 
in  her  future  as  a  geisha,  however,  since  his  wife 
chose  to  pet  and  protect  her.  How  was  it  possible 
for  her  to  learn  from  the  poor,  witless  Okusama? 
When  the  latter  joyously  jabbered  of  the  little  one's 
wonderful  progress,  Matsuda  would  smile  or  grunt 
surlily. 

Then,  one  day,  walking  in  the  woods,  he  had 
come,  unexpectedly,  upon  the  posturing  child,  toss 
ing  her  little  body  from  side  to  side  like  a  wind 
blown  flower,  while  his  wife  picked  two  single  notes 
upon  the  samisen.  Matsuda  watched  them  dumb- 
smitten.  Was  it  possible,  he  asked  himself,  that 
the  Okusama  had  discovered  what  he  had  over 
looked?  But  he  brushed  the  thought  aside.  These 
were  merely  the  precocious  antics  of  a  spoiled  child. 
They  would  not  be  pretty  in  one  grown  to  woman 
hood.  There  was  much  to  do  in  the  geisha-house. 
The  fame  of  his  gardens  must  be  kept  assiduously 
before  the  public.  Matsuda  had  no  time  for  the 
little  Moonlight,  save,  chidingly,  to  frown  upon  her 
when  she  was  not  in  the  presence  of  the  Okusama. 
And  so,  almost  unobserved  by  the  master  of  the 
geisha-house,  Moonlight  came  to  the  years  of 
maidenhood. 

One  night  the  House  of  Slender  Pines  was  honored 
by  the  unexpected  advent  of  most  exalted  guests. 

10 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

The  chief  geishas  were  absent  at  an  entertainment, 
and  Matsuda  was  in  despair.  He  was  forced,  con 
sequently,  to  put  the  novices  into  service,  and  while 
he  bit  his  nails  frenziedly  at  the  awkward  move 
ments  of  the  apprentices,  Moonlight  slipped  to  his 
side  and  whispered  in  his  ear  that  she  was  com 
petent  to  dance  as  beautifully  as  the  chief  geishas. 
As  he  stared  at  her  in  wrathful  irritation,  his  wife 
glided  to  his  other  side  and  joined  the  girl  in  plead 
ing.  Gruffly  he  consented.  Matters  could  not  be 
much  worse.  What  mattered  it  now?  He  was  al 
ready  disgraced  in  the  eyes  of  the  most  high.  Well, 
then,  let  this  pet  apprentice  do  her  foolish  dance. 

Moonlight  seized  her  opportunity  with  the  gay 
avidity  of  the  gambler  who  tosses  his  all  upon  a 
final  chance.  At  the  risk  of  meeting  the  fearful 
displeasure  of  her  master,  the  ridicule,  disdain,  and 
even  hatred  of  the  older  geishas,  whom  it  was  her 
duty  to  imitate,  the  girl  danced  before  the  most 
critical  audience  in  Kioto. 

Her  triumph  was  complete.  It  may  have  been 
the  novelty  or  mystery  of  her  dance,  the  hypnotic 
perfection  of  her  art;  it  may  have  been  her  own 
surpassing  beauty — no  one  sought  to  analyze  the 
source  of  her  peculiar  power.  Before  the  smiling, 
coaxing  witchery  of  her  eyes  and  lips  they  fell 
figuratively,  and  indeed  literally,  upon  their  knees. 

She  became  the  mad  furore  and  fashion  of 
the  hour.  Poets  indited  lyrics  to  her  respective 

ii 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

features.  Princes  flung  gifts  at  her  feet.  People 
traveled  from  the  several  quarters  of  the  empire 
to  see  her.  And  at  this  most  dangerous  period  of 
her  career  the  young  Lord  Saito  Gonji,  last  of  one 
of  the  most  illustrious  families  in  Japan,  crossed 
her  path. 


CHAPTER  III 

IS  honorable  mother  declared  that  Gonji 
was  afflicted  with  a  malady  of  the 
stomach.  She  proffered  warm  drinks 
and  poultices  and  sought  to  induce  him 
to  remain  in  bed.  Now  that  the  long 
and  severe  years  of  discipline  had  passed  and  her 
son  was  at  last  at  home  with  her,  all  of  the  natural 
mother  within  her,  which  had  been  repressed  so  long, 
yearned  over  her  only  son.  Even  her  cold  and 
somewhat  repelling  manner  showed  a  softening. 

Had  he  not  been  at  this  time  absorbed  in  his 
own  dreams,  Gonji  would  have  met  half-way  the 
pathetic  advances  of  his  mother;  but  he  was  oblivious 
to  the  change  in  her.  He  insisted  politely  that  his 
health  was  excellent,  begged  to  be  excused,  and 
wandered  off  by  himself. 

His  father,  whose  mighty  business  interests  were 
in  Tokio,  abandoned  them  for  the  time  being  and 
remained  by  his  son's  side  in  Kioto,  following  the 
young  man  assiduously,  seeking  vainly  to  arouse 
him  from  the  melancholy  lethargy  into  which  he 
had  fallen.  Deep  in  the  heart  of  the  elder  Lord 
Saito  was  the  acute  knowledge  of  what  troubled 

13 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

his  son,  for  afflicted  he  undoubtedly  was,  as  all  the 
relatives  unanimously  and  officiously  averred.  Such 
a  funereal  countenance  was  unbefitting  a  bride 
groom.  One  would  think  the  unhappy  youth  was 
being  driven  to  his  tomb,  rather  than  to  the  bridal 
bed! 

The  parents  and  relatives  vied  with  each  other 
in  importuning  the  unfortunate  Gonji,  and  sought 
to  distract  him  from  what  were  evidently  his  own 
morbid  thoughts.  Also  they  sought  to  entrap  his 
confidence.  Gonji  kept  his  counsel,  and  from  day 
to  day  he  grew  paler,  thinner,  more  silent,  and  sad. 

"Call  in  the  services  of  the  mightiest  of  honorable 
physicians  and  surgeons,"  ordered  the  Lady  Saito. 
"It  may  be  an  operation  will  relieve  our  son." 

Her  husband,  thoughtful,  sad,  a  prey  to  an  uneasy 
conscience,  shook  his  head  dumbly. 

"It  is  not  possible  for  the  honorable  knife  to 
efface  a  cancer  of  the  heart,"  said  he,  sighing. 

"Hasten  the  nuptials,"  suggested  the  uncle  of 
Ohano.  "There  is  no  medicine  which  acts  with  as 
drastic  force  as  a  wife." 

This  time  the  Lord  Saito  Ichigo  was  even  more 
emphatic  in  negativing  the  suggestion. 

"There  is  time  enough,"  he  asserted,  gruffly. 
"I  will  not  begrudge  my  son  at  least  the  short  and 
precious  time  which  should  precede  the  ceremony. 
This  is  his  period  of  diversion.  It  shall  not  be  cut 
in  half." 

14 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

The  brusque  words  of  the  head  of  the  Saito  house 
aroused  the  ire  of  the  nearest  relative  of  the  bride. 
He  said  complainingly : 

"It  does  not  seem  as  if  the  honorable  bridegroom 
desires  to  avail  himself  of  his  prenuptial  privileges. 
He  does  not  seek  the  usual  diversions  of  youth  at 
this  time.  Is  it  not  unnatural  to  prefer  solitude?" 

"It  is  a  matter  of  choice,"  contended  the  father 
of  Gonji,  with  curt  pride. 

"But  if  it  injure  his  health,  is  it  not  the  duty  of 
the  relatives  to  assist  him?" 

"The  gates  of  the  saito  are  wide  open.  My  son 
is  not  a  prisoner.  He  is  at  liberty  to  go  whithersoever 
he  pleases.  It  is  apparent  that  his  pleasures  lie  not 
outside  the  ancestral  home  of  his  fathers." 

"That,"  said  the  uncle  of  Ohano,  suavely,  "is 
because  he  still  stumbles  in  the  period  of  adolescence. 
It  is  necessary  he  be  instructed." 

The  father  of  Gonji  pondered  the  matter  som 
berly,  pulling  with  thumb  and  forefinger  at  his 
lower  lip.  After  a  moment  he  said,  with  sudden 
determination : 

"You  are  right,  Takedo  Isami.  Your  superior 
suggestion  is  gratefully  received.  Since  my  son 
will  not  seek  the  pleasures  of  youth,  let  us  bring 
them  to  our  house.  It  is  necessary  immediately  to 
arouse  him  from  a  youthful  despair  which  may 
tend  to  injure  his  health." 

He  looked  up  and  met  the  cunning  eye  of  his 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

prospective  kinsman  regarding  him  with  a  peculiar 
expression.  Ichigo  added,  gruffly  but  sturdily: 

"It  would  be  an  excellent  programme  to  secure  the 
services  of  the  honorable  Spider  of  the  House  of 
Slender  Pines.  I  pray  you  undertake  the  matter 
for  me.  See  Matsuda,  the  master  of  the  house. 
Spare  no  expense  in  the  matter." 

The  expression  on  Takedo's  face  was  now  enig 
matic.  He  emptied  his  pipe  slowly  and  with  de 
liberation,  as  if  in  thought.  Then  solemnly  he 
bobbed  his  bald  head,  as  if  in  assent.  The  two  old 
men  then  arose,  shaking  their  skirts  and  hissing 
perfunctorily.  Their  bows  were  formal,  and  the 
words  of  parting  the  usual  friendly  and  polite  ones; 
but  each  met  the  eye  of  the  other,  and  both  under 
stood;  and,  strangely,  a  sense  of  antagonism  arose 
between  them. 


CHAPTER  IV 


O  it  was  in  the  honorable  house  of  his 
father,  and  of  the  hundred  august  an 
cestors  whom  they  accused  him  of  dis 
honoring,  that  Gonji  again  saw  the 
Spider. 

Into  the  houses  of  the  most  exalted  the  geisha 
flutters  with  the  free  familiarity  of  a  pampered 
house  pet.  No  festivity,  however  private,  is  con 
sidered  complete  without  her.  She  is  as  necessary 
as  the  flowers  that  bedeck  the  house,  the  viands, 
and  the  sake. 

Upon  a  humid  night  in  the  season  of  greatest 
heat,  and  in  the  glow  of  a  thousand  fireflies,  the 
Spider  danced  in  the  gardens  of  the  house  of  Saito. 
Her  kimono  was  vermilion,  embroidered  with  dragons 
of  gold.  Gold  too  were  her  obi  and  her  fan,  and 
red  and  gold  were  the  ornaments  that  glistened 
like  fire  in  her  hair.  Yet  more  brilliant,  more 
sparklingly,  gleamed  and  shone  the  eyes  of  the 
dancer,  and  her  scarlet  lips  were  redder  than  the 
poppies  in  her  hair,  and  held  an  hypnotic  allure 
for  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji,  watching  her  in  a  breath 
less  silence  that  fairly  pained  him. 

17 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

Every  gesture,  every  slightest  flutter  of  her  sleeve, 
her  hand,  her  fan,  every  smallest  turn  or  motion 
of  her  bewitching  head,  was  directed  at  the  guest 
of  honor,  the  son  and  heir  of  the  house  of  Saito. 
For  him  alone  she  seemed  to  dance.  To  him  she 
threw  her  joyous  smiles,  and,  in  the  end,  when  the 
dance  was  done,  it  was  at  his  feet  she  knelt,  raising 
her  naively  coy,  half-questioning  glance.  Then, 
very  softly  and  with  gentle  solicitation: 

''At  your  sole  honorable  service,  noble  lord,"  she 
said.  "What  is  your  pleasure  next?" 

He  said,  like  one  awakening  from  some  strange 
dream  or  trance: 

"It  is  my  pleasure,  geisha,  that  you  look  into 
my  eyes." 

She  glanced  up  timidly,  as  if  troubled  and  sur 
prised.  A  wistfully  joyous  light  came  into  her  dark 
eyes;  then  they  remained  unmovingly  fixed  upon 
his.  Very  softly,  that  those  about  them  might  not 
hear,  he  whispered: 

"I  saw  your  face  dimly  in  the  firefly-light.  I  was 
possessed  with  but  one  ambition — to  look  into  your 
eyes!" 

Her  pretty  head  drooped  so  low  that  now  it  touched 
his  knee.  At  the  contact  he  trembled  and  drew 
sharply  away  from  her.  Alarmed,  fearing  she  had 
unwittingly  offended  him,  she  raised  her  head  and 
looked  at  him  with  a  mutely  questioning  glance. 
There  was  a  cloud,  dark  and  very  melancholy,  upon 

18 


THE    HONORABLE   MISS    MOONLIGHT 

the  face  of  the  one  she  had  been  ordered  to  enter 
tain.  She  thought  of  the  instructions  of  Matsuda: 
that  it  should  be  her  paramount  duty  to  beguile 
and  distract  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji.  Her  fortune  for 
life  might  be  made  by  succeeding  in  arousing  him 
to  a  joyous  mood.  But,  lo!  the  one  she  sought  to 
please  drew  back  from  her,  gloomy,  troubled. 

Her  rapid  rise  to  fame  had  not  brought  to  the 
Spider  the  peculiar  joy  she  had  anticipated.  Fame 
carries  ever  with  it  its  bitter  savor,  and,  although 
she  had  not  alone  become  the  darling  of  the  cele 
brated  geisha-house,  but  had  brought  fame  and 
fortune  to  her  master,  many  of  the  things  she  had 
most  cared  for  she  had  been  obliged  to  forego]  in 
her  new  position  as  star  of  the  House  of  Slender 
Pines. 

No  longer  was  it  possible  for  her  to  be  shielded 
by  the  loving  arms  of  the  Okusama.  Out  into  the 
broadest  limelight  even  the  delighted  Okusama  had 
pushed  her,  and  this  blinding  light  entailed  a  thou 
sand  duties  of  which  she  had  only  vaguely  heard 
from  the  patronizing  elder  geishas.  She  had  ceased 
to  be  the  cuddled  and  petted  little  Moonlight,  loved 
and  stroked  and  tossed  about  by  the  geishas,  be 
cause  of  her  beauty  and  ingenuous  wit.  Suddenly 
she  had  become  the  Spider!  It  was  a  new  and 
fearful  name  that  terrified  her. 

Matsuda,  proud  of  her  success,  and  at  last  com 
pletely  won  over,  surrounded  her  with  every  luxury. 

19 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

So  far  he  had  forced  upon  the  girl  none  of  the  odious 
exactions  often  demanded  of  the  geishas  by  their 
masters,  even  though  the  law  had  defined  the  exact 
services  to  which  he  was  legally  entitled. 

A  thousand  lovers  a  geisha  might  have,  said  the 
unwritten  law,  but  to  possess  one  alone  was  fatal! 
She  must  place  a  guard  of  iron  before  her  heart !  A 
geisha  must  sip  at  love  as  the  bee  culls  the  honey 
from  the  blossom,  lingering  but  a  moment  over  each. 
The  rivers  and  the  many  pits  of  death  were  filled 
with  the  bodies  of  the  hapless  ones  who  had  gone 
outside  this  law,  who  had  dared  to  permit  the  pas 
sionate  heart  to  escape  beyond  the  prescribed  bounds. 

Moonlight,  with  all  the  witching  arts  of  the 
geisha  at  her  finger-tips,  with  a  beauty  as  rare  and 
mysterious  as  though  she  were  a  princess  of  some 
new  world,  had  found  it  thus  far  an  easy  task  to 
follow  the  rules  laid  down  for  her  class.  Like  a 
fragile  flower  that  must  not  be  touched  lest  its 
bloom  be  soiled,  the  master  of  the  geisha-house 
jealously  protected  his  star  from  all  possible  con 
tamination.  She  was  held  out  as  a  lure  to  captivate 
and  draw  to  his  house  the  rich  and  noble  ones ;  but, 
like  some  precious  jewel  in  a  casket,  she  was  but 
to  be  seen,  not  touched!  Matsuda  was  determined 
to  save  his  most  precious  possession  for  the  highest 
of  bidders.  Now  his  patience  had  met  its  due  re 
ward.  The  most  illustrious  head  of  the  house  of 
the  exalted  Saito  solicited  his  services! 

20 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

So,  while  Matsuda  gloated  over  the  rich  reward 
to  be  reaped  surely  from  his  lordly  patron,  the 
Spider  was  looking  with  frightened  eyes  into  those 
of  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji,  and  she  trembled  and 
turned  very  pale  under  his  somber  glance.  All  her 
gay  insouciance,  her  saucy,  quick  repartee,  the 
teasing,  witching  little  graces  for  which  she  now 
was  noted,  seemed  to  have  deserted  her.  It  troubled 
her  that  she  was  unable  to  obey  the  command  of 
her  master  and  make  his  most  noble  patron  smile. 
Within  the  piercing  eyes  which  sought  her  own  she 
seemed  to  read  only  some  tragic  question,  which, 
alas,  she  felt  unable  to  answer. 

"I  desire  to  please  you,  noble  sir,"  she  said,  plain 
tively,  and  added,  with  an  impulsive  motion  of  her 
little  hands:  "Alas!  It  is  my  duty!" 

For  the  first  time  a  faint  smile  quivered  across 
the  young  man's  lips;  but  he  did  not  speak.  He 
continued  to  regard  her  in  that  musing  fashion,  as 
though  he  studied  every  feature  of  her  face  and 
drank  in  its  loveliness  with  something  of  resignation 
and  despair. 

His  curious  silence  affected  her.  Was  it  not 
possible  to  arouse  the  strange  one,  then,  to  some 
animation  and  interest?  Timidly  she  put  out  her 
hand — a  mute,  charming  little  gesture — then  rested 
it  upon  his  own.  As  though  her  touch  had  some 
electric  power  which  stirred  him  to  the  depths,  he 
leaned  suddenly  toward  her,  inclosing  her  hand  in 

1  21 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

a  close,  almost  painful  grip.  Now  hungrily,  plead 
ingly,  his  look  enveloped  her.  His  voice  trembled 
with  the  emotion  he  sought  vainly  to  control. 

"Geisha,  if  it  were  possible — if  we  belonged  in 
another  land — if  it  were  not  for  the  customs  of  the 
ancestors — I  would  tell  you  what  is  in  my  heart!" 

Like  a  child,  wondering  and  curious,  she  answered : 

"I  pray  you,  tell  me!  To  keep  a  troubled  secret 
is  like  carrying  a  cup  brim  full!" 

"I  will  ask  you  a  question,"  he  said  incisively. 
"Wilt  thou  be  my  wife  for  all  the  lives  yet  to 
come?" 

As  he  spoke  the  forbidden  words  the  Spider 
turned  very  pale.  She  sought  to  withdraw  her 
trembling  hands  from  his,  but  he  held  to  them  with 
a  passionate  tenacity.  She  could  not  speak.  She 
could  but  look  at  him  mutely,  piteously;  and  her 
lovely,  pleading  gaze  but  added  to  the  man's  dis 
traction. 

"Answer  me!"  he  entreated.  "Make  me  the 
promise,  beautiful  little  mousme'!" 

His  vehemence  and  passion  frightened  her.  She 
tried  to  avert  her  face,  to  turn  it  aside  from  his 
burning  gaze;  but  he  brought  his  own  insistently 
close  to  hers.  She  could  not  escape  his  impelling 
eyes.  At  last,  her  bosom  heaving  up  and  down 
like  a  little  troubled  sea,  she  stammered: 

"You  speak  so  strangely,  noble  sir.  I — I — am 
but — a  geisha  of  the  House  of  Slender  Pines.  Thou 

22 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

art  as  far  above  my  sphere  as — as — are  the  honor 
able  stars  in  the  heavens." 

Her  voice  had  a  quality  of  exquisite  terror,  as 
though  she  sought  vainly  to  thrust  aside  some 
hypnotic  force  to  which  she  yearned  to  yield.  It 
aroused  but  the  ardor  of  her  lover. 

"It  is  not  possible,"  he  murmured,  "for  one  to 
be  above  thee,  little  geisha.  Thou  art  lovelier  than 
all  the  visions  of  the  esteemed  Sun  Lady  herself.  I 
am  thy  lover  for  all  time.  I  desire  to  possess  thee 
utterly  in  all  the  lives  yet  to  come.  Make  me  the 
promise,  beautiful  mousme,  that  thou  wilt  travel 
with  me — that  thou  wilt  be  mine,  mine  only!" 

She  drew  back  as  far  from  him  as  it  was  possible, 
with  her  hands  jealously  held  by  his  own.  Her 
wide,  frightened  eyes  were  fixed  in  terror  upon  his. 

"I  cannot  speak  the  words!"  she  gasped.  "I 
dare  not  speak  them,  august  one!" 

For  a  moment  his  face,  which  had  been  lighted 
by  excitement  and  passion,  darkened. 

"You  cannot  then  return  my  love?" 

"Ah!  They  are  not  words  for  a  geisha  to  speak. 
It  is  not  for  such  as  I  to  make  the  long  journey  with 
one  so  illustrious  as  thou!" 

A  sob  broke  from  her,  and  because  she  could  no 
longer  bear  to  meet  his  burning  gaze  she  hid  her 
face  with  the  motion  of  a  child  against  their  clasped 
hands. 

For  a  long  moment  there  was  silence  between 

23 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

them.  Louder,  noisier,  rose  the  mirth  of  the  rev 
elers  about  them.  A  dozen  geishas  pulled  at  the 
three-stringed  instruments.  As  many  more  swayed 
and  moved  in  the  figures  of  the  classical  dance. 
Like  great,  gaudy  butterflies,  their  bright  wings 
fluttering  behind  them,  the  moving  figures  of  the 
tea-maidens  passed  before  them.  Almost  it  seemed 
as  if  they  two  had  been  purposely  set  apart  and 
forgotten.  No  one  approached  them.  With  con 
certed  caution,  all  avoided  a  glance  in  the  direction 
of  the  guest  of  honor  and  the  famous  one  who 
had  been  chosen  to  beguile  and  save  him.  How  well 
she  had  performed  her  task  one  could  see  in  the 
beaming  face  of  Matsuda,  the  uneasy  face  of  the 
elder  Lord  Saito,  and  the  somewhat  scowling  one  of 
the  uncle  of  Ohano. 

The  Lord  Gonji  saw  nothing  of  the  relatives.  He 
was  oblivious  indeed  of  everything  save  the  shining, 
drooped  little  head  upon  his  hands.  Scarcely  he 
knew  his  own  voice,  so  superlatively  gentle  and 
wooing  was  its  tone. 

"I  pray  you,  give  me  complete  happiness  with 
the  promise,  beloved  one,"  he  entreated. 

She  raised  her  head  slowly;  and  gravely,  wistfully, 
her  eyes  now  questioned  him.  Dimly  she  realized 
the  effect  of  such  a  union  upon  his  haughty  family 
and  the  ancestors. 

She  was  but  a  geisha,  a  cultivated  toy,  educated 
for  the  one  purpose  of  beguiling  men  and  making 

24 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

their  lot  brighter.  Like  the  painted  and  grotesque 
comedian  who  tortured  his  limbs  to  make  others 
laugh,  so  it  was  the  duty  of  a  geisha  to  keep  ever 
the  laugh  upon  her  lips,  even  though  the  heart 
within  her  broke.  It  was  not  possible  that  to  her, 
a  mere  dancing  girl,  one  was  offering  the  entranc 
ing  opportunity  of  which  lovers  whisper  to  each 
other.  Her  face  was  very  pinched  and  white,  the 
eyes  startlingly  large,  as  she  answered  him: 

"I  dare  not  speak  the  words,  noble  sir.  I  do  not 
know  the  way.  The  Meido  is  very  far  off.  We 
meet  but  once.  Your  honorable  parents  and  the 
ancestors  would  turn  back  one  so  humble  and  in 
significant  as  I." 

"The  honorable  parents,"  he  gently  explained, 
"can  but  point  our  duty  in  the  present  life.  In 
the  lives  yet  to  come  we  choose  our  own  companions. 
If  I  could — if  it  were  possible — how  gladly  would 
I  take  thee  also  for  this  present  life." 

She  drew  back,  puzzled,  vaguely  distressed. 

"You — you  do  not  wish  me  now  also?"  she  stam 
mered,  and  there  was  a  shocked,  dazed  note  in  her 
voice.  He  saw  what  was  in  her  mind,  and  it  startled 
him. 

"Do  you  not  know  why  they  have  summoned 
you  here  to-night?"  he  questioned. 

"At — at  the  command  of  my  master,"  she  fal 
tered.  "I  am  here  to — to  please  thee,  noble  sir. 
If  it  please  thee  to  make  a  jest — " 

25 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

She  broke  off  piteously  and  tried  to  smile.  Her 
hands  slipped  from  his  as  he  arose  suddenly  and 
looked  down  at  her  solemnly,  where  she  still  knelt 
at  his  feet. 

"You  are  here,"  he  said,  "to  celebrate  my  honor 
able  betrothal  to  Takedo  Ohano-san." 

She  did  not  move,  but  continued  to  stare  up  at 
him  with  the  dumb-stricken  look  of  one  unjustly 
punished.  Then  suddenly  she  sobbed,  and  her 
little  head  rested  upon  the  ground  at  his  feet. 

"Geisha!"  He  called  to  her  sharply,  command- 
ingly,  and  yet  with  a  world  of  pleading  emotion. 
Matsuda,  hovering  near,  turned  and  looked  lower- 
ingly  at  the  girl  on  the  ground.  Her  face  was 
humbly  in  the  dust  at  the  feet  of  the  Lord  Saito 
Gonji.  It  was  a  position  unworthy  of  a  geisha,  and 
Matsuda  moved  furiously  nearer  to  them.  This 
was  the  work  of  the  Okusama,  inwardly  he  fumed. 
Now  when  the  geisha  was  put  to  the  greatest  test 
she  was  found  wanting.  At  the  feet  of  the  man 
when  he  should  have  knelt  at  hers. 

"Geisha!" 

This  time  there  was  nothing  but  tenderness  in 
his  voice.  He  was  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
the  girl  at  his  feet  was  suffering.  He  loved  her, 
and  was  sure  that  life  without  her  would  be  both 
intolerable  and  worthless.  He  had  begged  her  to 
travel  with  him  upon  the  final  "long  journey."  She, 
in  her  simple  innocence,  believed  he  had  asked  her 

26 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

in  marriage  for  this  life  also.  Now,  humiliated,  she 
dared  not  look  at  him. 

Down  he  knelt  beside  her;  but  when  he  sought  to 
put  his  arms  about  her,  she  sprang  wildly  to  her 
feet.  Not  for  a  moment  did  she  pause,  but  like 
some  hunted,  terrified  thing  fled  fleetly  across  the 
garden. 

He  started  to  follow,  but  stopped  suddenly, 
blinded  by  the  sudden  excess  of  madness  and  rage 
that  swept  over  him.  For,  as  she  ran,  her  master, 
Matsuda,  doubled  over  in  her  path.  His  face  was 
purple.  His  wicked  little  eyes  glittered  like  one 
gone  insane,  and  his  great  thick  lips  fell  apart, 
showing  the  teeth  like  tusks  of  some  wild  beast. 
Gonji  saw  the  shining  doubled  fists  as  they  rose  in 
the  air  and  descended  upon  the  head  of  the  hapless 
Spider.  Then  he  sprang  forward  like  a  madman, 
leaping  at  the  throat  of  Matsuda  and  tossing  him 
aside  like  some  unclean  thing. 

She  lay  unmoving  upon  her  back,  her  arms  cast 
out  like  the  wings  of  a  bird  on  either  side.  Gonji 
caught  her  up  in  his  arms  with  a  cry  that  rang  out 
weirdly  over  the  gardens.  It  stopped  the  mirth  of 
the  revelers  and  brought  them  in  a  hushed  group 
about  the  pair.  Now  silence  reigned  in  the  gardens 
of  the  Saito. 

On  the  upper  floor  of  the  mansion  the  walls  had 
been  pushed  entirely  out  so  that  an  open  pavilion, 
flower-laden,  made  a  charming  retreat  for  the 

27 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

"honorable  interiors,"  the  ladies  of  the  family,  who 
might  not,  with  propriety,  join  their  lords  in  the 
revelry.  Here,  unseen,  these  "precious  jewels  of 
the  household"  might  watch  the  celebration;  but 
it  was  the  part  of  the  geisha  to  entertain  their  lord. 
Theirs  the  lot  to  receive  him  when,  weary  and  worn, 
he  must  eventually  return  for  rest. 

Now,  from  their  sake-sipping  the  ladies  were 
aroused  by  that  cry  of  Saito  Gonji.  Over  the 
lantern-hung,  flower-laden  trellis  they  leaned,  their 
shrill  voices  sounding  strangely  in  the  silence  that 
had  fallen  upon  the  entire  company.  Some  one 
lighted  a  torch  and  swung  it  above  the  group  on 
the  ground.  Under  its  light  the  mother  of  Gonji, 
and  his  bride,  Ohano,  saw  the  form  of  the  Spider; 
and  beside  her,  enveloping  her  in  his  arms,  whis 
pering  to  and  caressing  her,  was  the  Lord  Saito 
Gonji. 

Japanese  women  are  trained  to  hide  their  deepest 
emotions.  All  the  world  tells  of  their  impassive 
stoicism;  but  human  nature  is  human  nature,  after 
all.  So  the  bride  shrieked  like  one  who  has  lost 
his  mind,  but  the  cry  was  strangled  ere  it  was  half 
uttered.  When  the  Lady  Saito's  hand  was  with 
drawn  from  the  mouth  of  the  bride,  the  pallid- 
faced  Ohano  slipped  humbly  to  her  knees,  and, 
shaking  like  a  leaf  in  a  storm,  stammered: 

"I — I — b-but  laughed  at  the  antics  of  the  come 
dians.  Oh,  d-d-d-did  you  see — " 

28 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

Here  she  broke  off  and  hid  her  face,  with  a 
muffled  sob,  upon  the  breast  of  the  elder  woman. 
Without  a  word  the  latter  led  the  girl  inside,  and 
the  maidens  drew  the  shoji  into  place,  closing  the 
floor. 


CHAPTER  V 

MI!  Omi!  Are  you  there?  Wretched 
little  maiden,  why  do  you  not  come?" 
The  Spider  peered  vainly  down  through 
the  patch  in  her  floor.  Then,  at  the 
faint  sound  of  a  sliding  foot  without, 
she  slapped  the  section  of  matting  into  place  again 
and  fell  to  work  in  panic  haste  upon  her  embroidery. 
A  passing  geisha  thrust  in  a  curious  face  through 
the  screens  and  wished  her  a  pleasant  day's  work. 
The  Spider  responded  cheerfully  and  showed  her 
little  white  teeth  in  the  smile  her  associates  knew 
so  well.  But  the  instant  the  geisha  had  glided  out 
of  sight  she  was  back  at  the  patch  again.  She  called 
in  a  whisper:  "Omi!  Omi!  Omi-san!"  but  no  an 
swering  treble  child-voice  responded. 

For  a  while  she  crouched  over  the  patch  and 
sought  to  peer  down  into  the  passage  below.  As 
she  knelt,  something  sharp  flew  up  and  smote  against 
her  cheek.  She  grasped  at  it.  Then,  hastily  closing 
the  patch  and,  with  stealthy  looks  about  her,  paus 
ing  a  moment  with  alert  ears  to  listen,  she  opened 
at  last  the  note.  It  was  crushed  about  a  pebble, 
and  was  written  on  the  thinnest  of  tissue-paper. 

3° 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

Moonlight  drank  in  avidly  the  burning  words  of 
love  in  the  poem.  Her  eyes  were  shining  and  bril 
liant,  her  cheeks  and  lips  as  red  as  the  poppies  in 
her  hair,  when  Matsuda  thrust  back  the  sliding 
screens  and  entered  the  chamber.  He  said  nothing 
to  the  smiling  geisha,  but  contented  himself  with 
scrutinizing  her  in  a  calculating  manner,  as  though 
he  summarized  her  exact  value.  Then,  with  a  jerk 
or  nod  apparently  of  satisfaction,  he  left  the  room, 
and  the  girl  was  enabled  to  reread  the  beloved  epistle. 

A  few  moments  later  the  screens  which  Matsuda 
had  carefully  closed  behind  him  were  cautiously 
parted  a  space,  and  the  thin,  impish,  pert,  and  pre 
cocious  face  of  a  little  girl  of  thirteen  was  thrust  in. 
She  made  motions  with  her  lips  to  the  Spider,  who 
laughed  and  nodded  her  head. 

Omi — for  it  was  she — slipped  into  the  room.  She 
was  an  odd-looking  little  creature,  her  body  as 
thin  as  her  wise  little  face,  above  which  her  hair 
was  piled  in  elaborate  imitation  of  the  coiffure  of 
her  mistress  and  preceptress.  She  fell  to  work  at 
once,  solicitously  arranging  the  dress  and  hair  of 
the  Spider  and  complaining  bitterly  that  the  maids 
had  neglected,  shamefully,  her  beloved  mistress's 
toilet. 

"Although  it  is  not  the  proper  work  for  an  ap 
prentice-geisha,"  she  rattled  along,  "yet  I  myself 
will  serve  your  honorable  body,  rather  than  permit 
it  to  suffer  from  such  pernicious  neglect." 


THE   HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

She  smoothed  the  little  hands  of  her  mistress, 
manicured  and  perfumed  them,  talking  volubly  all 
the  time  upon  every  subject  save  the  one  the  Spider 
was  waiting  to  hear  about.  At  last,  unable  to  bear 
it  longer,  Moonlight  broke  in  abruptly: 

"How  you  chatter  of  insignificant  matters!  You 
tease  me,  Omi.  I  shall  have  to  chastise  you.  Tell 
me  in  a  breath  about  the  matter." 

Omi  grinned  impishly,  but  at  the  reproachful  look 
of  her  mistress  her  natural  impulse  to  torment  even 
the  one  she  loved  best  in  the  world  gave  way.  She 
began  in  a  gasp,  as  though  she  had  just  come  hastily 
into  the  room. 

"Oh,  oh,  you  would  never,  never  believe  it  in  the 
world.  Nor  could  I,  indeed,  had  I  not  seen  it  with 
my  own  insignificant  eyes." 

"Yes,  yes,  speak  quickly!"  urged  the  Spider, 
eagerly  hanging  upon  the  words  of  the  appren 
tice. 

Omi  drew  in  and  expelled  her  breath  in  long, 
sibilant  hisses  after  the  manner  of  the  most  exalted 
of  aristocrats. 

"There  are  six  of  them  at  the  gates,  not  to  count 
the  servants  and  runners  down  the  road!" 

Moonlight  looked  at  her  incredulously,  and  Omi 
nodded  her  head  with  vigor. 

"It  is  so.  I  counted  each  augustness."  She 
began  enumerating  upon  her  fingers.  "There  was 
the  high-up  Count  Takedo  Isami,  Takedo  Sachi, 

32 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Takedo — there  were  four  Takedos.  Then  the  Lord 
Saito  Takamura  Ichigo,  Saito — " 

"Do  not  enumerate  them,  Omi.  Tell  me  instead 
how  you  came,  in  spite  of  the  watchful  ones,  in 
spite,  too,  of  Matsuda,  to  reach  his  lordship." 

As  she  spoke  the  last  word  reverently,  a  flush 
deepened  in  her  cheeks  and  her  eyes  shone  upon 
the  apprentice  with  such  a  lovely  light  that  the 
adoring  little  girl  cried  out  sharply: 

"It  is  true,  Moonlight-san !  Thou  art  lovelier 
than  Ama-terasu-o-mi-kami ! " 

"Hush,  foolish  one,  that  is  blasphemy.  Indeed  I 
should  be  very  unhappy  did  I  outshine  the  august 
lady  of  the  sun  in  beauty.  But  no  more  digressions. 
If  you  do  not  tell  me — and  tell  me  at  once — exactly 
what  happened — how  you  reached  the  side  of  his 
lordship — how  he  looked — just  how!  What  was 
said — the  very  words — how  he  spoke — acted.  Did 
he  smile,  or  was  he  sad,  Omi?  Tell  me — tell  me, 
please!"  She  ended  coaxingly;  but,  as  the  pert  little 
apprentice  merely  smiled  tantalizingly,  she  added, 
very  severely: 

"It  may  be  I  will  look  about  for  a  new  under 
study.  There  is  Ochika — " 

At  the  mention  of  her  rival's  name  Omi  made  a 
scornful  grimace,  but  she  answered  quickly: 

"The  Okusama  helped  me.  She  pretended  an 
illness.  Matsuda  was  afraid,  and  remained  by  her 
side,  charing  her  hands  and  her  head."  She  laughed 

33 


THE     HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

maliciously,  and  continued:  "I  slipped  out  by  the 
bamboo-hedge  gate.  Omatsu  saw  me — "  At  the 
look  of  alarm  on  the  Spider's  face:  "Pooh!  what 
does  it  matter?  Every  servant  in  the  house — ah! 
and  the  maids  and  apprentices — yes,  and  the  most 
honorable  geishas  too — know  the  secret,  and  they 
wish  you  well,  sweet  mistress!" 

She  squeezed  Moonlight's  hands  with  girlish  fer 
vor,  and  the  latter  returned  the  pressure  lovingly, 
but  besought  her  to  continue. 

"The  main  gates  were  closed.  Just  think!  No 
one  is  admitted  even  to  the  gardens.  Why,  'tis  like 
the  days  of  feudalism.  We  are  in  a  fortress,  with 
the  enemy  on  all  sides!" 

"Oh,  Omi,  you  let  your  imagination  run  away 
with  you,  and  I  hang  upon  your  words,  waiting  to 
hear  what  has  actually  happened." 

"I  am  telling  you.  It  is  exactly  as  I  have  said. 
Matsuda  dares  not  offend  the  powerful  family  of  the 
Saito,  and  it  is  at  their  command  that  the  gates 
of  the  House  of  Slender  Pines  are  closed  rigorously 
to  all  the  public.  No  one  dare  enter.  No  one  dare 
— go  out — save — I!"  and  she  smiled  impudently. 
"  It  is  said' ' — lowering  her  voice  confidentially — ' '  that 
Matsuda  has  been  paid  a  vast  sum  of  'cash'  to  keep 
his  house  closed.  Mistress,  there  are  great  notices 
in  black  and  white  nailed  upon  the  line  of  trees 
clear  down  the  road.  'The  House  of  Slender  Pines 
is  closed  for  the  season  of  greatest  heat!'  And 

34 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

just  think,"  and  the  little  apprentice-geisha  pouted, 
"not  a  koto  or  a  samisen  is  permitted  to  be  touched! 
Who  ever  heard  of  a  geisha-house  as  silent  as  a 
mortuary  hall?  It  is  very  sad.  We  wish  to  sing  and 
dance  and  court  the  smiles  of  noble  gentlemen;  but 
you  have  made  such  a  mess  with  your  honorable  love 
affair  that  every  geisha  and  every  apprentice  is  being 
punished!  We  are  not  permitted  to  speak  above  a 
whisper.  Our  lovers  must  stand  beyond  the  gates 
and  serenade  us  themselves.  It  is — " 

"Oh,  Omi,  you  wander  so!  Now  tell  me,  sweet 
girl,  exactly  what  I  am  perishing  to  know." 

"I  will,  duly!  You  preach  patience  to  me  so 
often,"  declared  the  impish  little  creature;  "now 
you  must  practise  it  also.  I  resume  my  narrative. 
Pray  do  not  interrupt  so  often,  as  it  delays  my 
story."  With  that  she  leisurely  proceeded. 

"Mistress,  the  entire  gardens  of  the  House  of 
Slender  Pines  are  patroled — yes,  and  by  armed 
samourai!" 

"Samourai!  You  speak  nonsense.  There  is  no 
such  thing  to-day  as  a  samourai.  Swords,  moreover, 
are  not  permitted.  Omi,  you  are  tormenting  me, 
and  it  is  very  unkind  and  ungrateful.  You  will 
force  me  to  punish  you  very  severely,  much  as  I 
love  you!" 

"It  is  as  I  have  said.  I  speak  only  the  truth. 
The  ones  who  guard  our  house  are  exalted  ones — 
samourai  by  birth  at  least,  relatives  of  his  lordship. 

35 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

They  do  not  permit  even  the  smallest  aperture  to 
be    unwatched,    whereby    his    lordship    might    slip 
into  the  gardens,  and  from  thence  into  my  mistress's 
chamber — " 
'   "Omi!" 

" — for  it  has  gone  abroad  through  all  the  Saito 
clan  that  the  peace  of  the  most  honorable  ancestors 
is  about  to  be  imperiled." 

Moonlight's  color  was  dying  down,  and  as  the  little 
girl  proceeded  her  two  hands  stole  to  her  breast 
and  clung  to  where  the  love  poem  was  hidden. 

"As  the  relatives  cannot  by  entreaty  force  his 
lordship  from  your  vicinity,  loveliest  of  mistresses, 
they  are  bent  upon  guarding  him,  in  case  by  the 
artful  intrigues  known  only  to  lovers" — and  the 
little  maiden  shook  her  head  with  precocious 
wisdom — "he  may  actually  reach  your  side  despite 
the  care  of  Matsuda." 

Moonlight  now  seemed  scarcely  to  be  listening. 
She  was  looking  out  dreamily  before  her,  and  her 
fancy  conjured  up  the  inspired  face  of  her  lover. 
She  felt  again  the  warm  touch  of  his  lips  against 
her  hair,  and  heard  the  ardent,  passionate  promise 
he  had  made  in  the  little  interval  when  she  had 
come  to  consciousness  within  his  arms  there  in  the 
gardens  of  his  ancestors.  "If  it  is  impossible  to 
have  you — ay,  in  this  very  life — then  I  will  wed  no 
other.  No!  though  the  voices  of  all  the  ancestors 
shout  to  me  to  do  my  duty!" 

36 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Now  she  knew  he  was  very  near  to  her.  For 
days  they  had  been  unable  to  induce  him  to  leave 
the  vicinity  of  her  home.  Outside  the  gates  of  the 
closed  geisha-house  he  had  taken  his  stand,  there 
to  importune  the  implacable  Matsuda  and  try 
vainly,  by  every  ruse  and  device,  to  reach  her  side. 

Though  she  knew  that  never  for  a  moment  would 
the  watchful  relatives  permit  him  to  be  alone,  still 
at  last  he  had  eluded  them  sufficiently  to  send  her 
word  through  the  clever  little  Omi.  Now  she  lis 
tened  with  tingling  ears,  as  Omi  glibly  and  with  ex 
aggeration  told  how,  as  she  flew  by  on  her  skipping- 
rope,  he  had  slipped  the  note  into  her  sleeve.  Only 
this  acute  child  could  have  outwitted  Matsuda  in 
this  way.  A  few  moments  of  hiding  in  the  deserted 
ozashiki,  a  chance  to  toss  the  note  aloft  to  her  mis 
tress,  and  then  to  await  her  opportunity  when  the 
lower  halls  should  be  clear  and  slip  upstairs!  Ap 
prentices  were  not  permitted  to  be  thus  at  large, 
and  Omi  knew  that,  if  caught,  her  punishment  would 
be  quite  dreadful;  but  she  gaily  took  the  risk  for 
her  beloved  mistress. 

She  sat  back  now  on  her  heels,  having  finished 
her  recital.  She  watched  Moonlight,  as  the  latter 
read  and  reread  her  love  missive.  Much  to  the 
disappointment  of  the  little  maiden,  her  mistress 
did  not  read  it  aloud.  The  sulky  pout,  however, 
soon  faded  from  the  girl's  lips,  as  her  mistress  put 
her  cheek  against  Omi's  thin  little  one.  With  arms 

4  37 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

enclasped,  the  two  sat  in  silence,  watching  the  falling 
of  the  twilight;  and  in  the  mind  of  each  one  solitary 
figure  stood  clearly  outlined.  His  features  were 
delicate,  his  arched  eyebrows  as  sensitive  as  a  poet's, 
his  lips  as  full  and  pouting  as  a  child's.  His  eyes 
were  large  and  long  and  somewhat  melancholy,  but 
there  were  latent  hints  within  them  of  a  stronger 
power  capable  of  awakening.  Upon  his  face  was 
that  ineffaceable  stamp  of  caste,  and  it  lent  a  charm 
to  the  youth's  entire  bearing. 

A  maid  pattered  into  the  apartment  and  lit  the 
solitary  andon.  Its  wan  light  added  but  a  feeble 
gleam  in  the  darkened  room.  Presently  she  re 
turned,  bearing  the  simple  meal  for  the  geisha  and 
her  apprentice.  When  this  was  finished,  with  the 
aid  of  Omi  she  spread  the  sleeping-quilts  and  snuffed 
the  andon  light.  It  was  the  orders  of  Matsuda  that 
the  house  should  be  darkened  at  the  hour  when 
previously  it  was  lighted  most  gaily.  There  was 
nothing  left  for  them  to  do  save  go  to  bed.  Yet  for 
some  time,  in  the  darkened  chamber,  with  its  closed 
walls,  the  two  remained  whispering  and  planning; 
and  once  the  watchful  maid  upon  her  sleeping-mat 
outside  the  screens  heard  the  soft,  musical  laughter 
of  the  famous  geisha,  and  the  servant  sighed  un 
easily.  She  did  not  like  this  work  assigned  her  by 
Matsuda. 

In  the  middle  of  the  night  Omi,  turning  on  the 
quilts,  missed  her  mistress  at  her  side.  Arising,  she 

38 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

felt  along  the  floor  beside  her.  Then,  alarmed,  she 
slipped  out  from  under  the  netting.  It  was  a  clear 
moonlight  night,  and  a  golden  stream  came  into  the 
room  through  the  widely  opened  shoji.  Leaning 
against  it,  with  her  dreamy  head  resting  upon  the 
trellis,  was  her  mistress.  By  the  light  of  the  moon 
she  held  the  shimmering  sheets  of  tissue-paper, 
and  over  these  she  still  pored  and  wept. 


CHAPTER  VI 

F  the  once  flourishing  and  numerous 
family  of  the  Saito,  there  were  but  two 
male  members  living,  Saito  Gonji,  and 
his  father,  Saito  Ichigo.  The  relatives 
of  the  Lady  Saito  were,  however,  nu 
merous,  and,  like  the  mother  of  Gonji,  they  possessed 
stern  and  domineering  dispositions.  In  contrast, 
her  husband  was  easy-going  and  genial,  and  it  had 
been  an  easy  matter,  in  consequence,  thus  far,  for 
the  relatives  to  rule  the  head  of  the  illustrious 
house.  Lord  Ichigo  had  even  followed  their  counsel 
in  the  matter  of  the  education  of  his  boy,  although  it 
had  cut  him  to  the  heart  to  resign  his  cherished  son 
at  so  tender  an  age  to  the  severe  tutors  chosen  for 
him  by  his  wife's  relatives. 

When  Ohano  had  been  selected  as  a  wife  for  the 
youth,  the  father  of  Gonji  had  offered  no  objection. 
In  fact,  there  was  little  that  he  could  have  found  to 
object  to  in  this  particular  matter.  The  girl  was  of 
a  family  equally  honorable;  her  health  was  excellent; 
she  had  shown  no  traits  of  character  objectionable 
in  a  woman.  Indeed,  she  appeared  to  be  an  honor 
able  and  desirable  vehicle  to  hand  down  the  race  of 

40 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Saito  of  imperishable  fame.  And  that,  of  course, 
was  the  main  idea  of  marriage.  It  was  a  matter  of 
duty  to  the  ancestors,  and  not  of  desire  of  the  in 
dividuals.  So  the  peace-loving  elder  Lord  Saito  be 
lieved,  at  the  time  of  the  betrothal,  that  he  had  safely 
disposed  of  a  most  vexing  problem. 

He  was  dumfounded,  panic-stricken,  at  the  turn 
events  had  taken.  On  all  sides,  harangued  by  that 
insistent  lady,  his  wife,  and  also  by  her  many  rela 
tives,  he  found  it,  nevertheless,  impossible  to  turn 
a  deaf  ear  to  the  impassioned  pleading  of  the  young 
man  himself.  Day  and  night  Gonji  desperately  beset 
his  father,  ignoring  utterly  all  other  members  of  the 
family. 

His  vigil  of  many  days  before  the  gates  of  the 
House  of  Slender  Pines  had  but  strengthened  the 
young  man's  resolve.  At  any  cost — yes,  at  the  sac 
rifice  of  the  ancestors'  honor  even — he  was  deter 
mined  to  possess  the  Spider.  Since  he  was  assured 
that  his  passion  was  returned — and  the  assurance 
came  through  the  lips  of  the  little  Omi,  who  had 
screeched  the  words  impishly  in  his  ear,  as  if  in  de 
rision,  that  those  about  them  might  not  suspect — 
Gonji  determined  to  marry  the  geisha  not  alone  in 
the  thousand  vague  lives  yet  to  come,  but  in  the 
present  one,  too.  He  must  have  her  now.  It  was 
impossible  to  wait,  he  told  his  father.  If  the  cruel 
laws  forbade  their  union,  then  they  would  go  to 
the  gods,  and  the  less  harsh  heart  of  the  river  would 

41 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

receive  them  in  a  bridal  night  that  would  never 
pass  away. 

It  is  not  an  easy  matter  for  a  youth  in  Japan  to 
marry  without  the  full  consent  of  his  parents.  Every 
possible  obstacle  had  been  thrown  into  the  path  of 
the  despairing  Gonji.  Even  his  revenue  was  cut  off 
completely,  so  that,  even  had  he  been  able  to  move 
the  stony  heart  of  the  geisha-keeper  from  the  posi 
tion  he  had  taken  at  the  behest  of  the  powerful 
family,  Gonji  had  not  the  means  to  purchase  the 
girl's  freedom  from  her  bonds.  There  was  nothing, 
therefore,  left  for  the  unfortunate  Gonji  save  to  focus 
all  his  energies  upon  his  father;  and  day  and  night 
he  besieged  the  unhappy  Ichigo. 

The  latter  had  listened,  without  comment,  to  the 
law  as  laid  down  by  Takedo  Isami,  the  uncle  of 
Ohano.  He  had  listened  to  the  urgings  of  the  many 
other  relatives  of  his  wife  that  he  remain  firm 
throughout  the  ordeal  they  realized  he  was  passing 
through.  He  had  given  an  equally  attentive  ear  to  the 
besieging  relatives  and  to  the  stern  Lady  Saito,  who 
was  confident  of  the  powerful  influence  of  the  tongue 
upon  her  lord.  Then  he  had  hearkened  in  silence, 
with  drawn,  averted  face,  to  the  desperate  pleading 
of  his  only  son,  the  one  creature  in  the  world  that 
he  truly  loved. 

While  the  father  miserably  debated  the  matter 
within  himself,  Gonji  suddenly  ceased  to  importune 
his  parent.  Retiring  to  his  own  chamber,  he  closed 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

and  fastened  the  doors  against  all  possible  in 
truders. 

The  relatives  regarded  this  latest  act  of  their 
fractious  young  kinsman  as  an  evidence  that  at  last 
his  impetuous  young  will  was  breaking.  They  con 
gratulated  themselves  upon  their  firmness  at  this 
time,  and  advised  Lord  Saito  Ichigo  to  retain  an 
unbending  attitude  in  the  matter. 

The  abrupt  retirement  of  his  son,  however,  had 
a  strange  effect  upon  Ichigo.  He  could  think  of 
nothing  save  the  youth's  last  words.  He  dared  not 
confide  his  fears  even  to  his  wife,  who  was  already 
sufficiently  distracted  by  her  task  of  caring  for 
Ohano  and  her  anxiety  about  her  son. 

Against  the  advice  of  the  relatives  that  Gonji  be 
left  alone  to  fight  out  the  battle  by  himself,  his 
father  forced  his  way  into  the  boy's  presence.  Gonji 
responded  neither  to  his  knocking  nor  to  his  father's 
imperative  call.  So  Lord  Ichigo  forced  the  screens 
apart. 

In  one  glance  the  father  of  Gonji  saw  what  it 
was  the  desperate  young  man  now  contemplated, 
for  he  had  robed  himself  from  head  to  foot  in  the 
white  garments  of  the  dead.  His  face  was,  moreover, 
as  fixed  and  white  as  though  already  he  had  started 
upon  the  journey. 

1 '  Gonji — my  dear  son ! ' ' 

The  elder  Lord  Saito  scarce  knew  his  own  voice, 
so  hoarse  and  full  of  anguished  emotion  was  it.  He 

43 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

stood  close  by  the  kneeling  Gonji  and  rested  his 
hands  heavily  upon  the  boy's  slender  shoulders. 
Gonji  looked  up  slowly  and  met  his  father's  gaze. 
A  mist  came  before  his  eyes,  but  he  spoke  steadily, 
gently : 

"  It  is  better  this  way.  I  pray  you  to  pardon  me. 
I  am  unable  to  serve  the  ancestors." 

"It  is  not  of  the  ancestors  I  think,"  said  Lord 
Saito,  gruffly,  "but  of  you — you  only,  my  son!" 

Gonji  looked  at  him  strangely  now,  as  though  he 
sought  to  fathom  the  mind  of  his  father;  but  he 
turned  away,  perplexed  and  distressed. 

"You  must  believe  that,"  went  on  his  father, 
brokenly.  "What  is  best  for  your  happiness,  that 
is  my  wish,  above  all  things.  If  happiness  is  only 
possible  for  you  by  giving  you  what  is  your  heart's 
desire,  then" — a  smile  broke  over  the  grave,  pain- 
racked  features  of  his  father,  as  though  a  weight 
were  suddenly  lifted  from  his  heart  at  the  sudden 
resolve  that  had  come  to  him — "then,"  he  con 
tinued,  "it  shall  be!" 

With  a  cry,  Gonji  gripped  at  his  parent  s  hands, 
his  eyes  turned  imploringly  upon  Lord  Saito's  face. 

"You  mean — ah,  you  promise,  then —  He  could 
not  speak  the  words  that  rushed  in  a  flood  to  his 
lips. 

"  He !  (Yes !) ' '  said  Lord  Ichigo,  solemnly.  "  It  is  a 
promise." 


•J\ 


CHAPTER  VII 

AVING  determined  upon  the  course  to 
take,  Lord  Saito  Ichigo  summoned  a 
council  of  the  relatives  of  the  family. 
For  the  first  time,  possibly,  since  his 
marriage,  he  faced  the  assembled  kins 
folk  with  the  calm  demeanor  of  one  who  had  seized, 
and  intended  to  retain,  the  authority  properly  in 
vested  in  him  as  head  of  the  house  of  Saito.  His 
should  be  the  voice  heard!  His  the  decision  that 
must  prevail! 

In  the  minds  of  most  men — Japanese  men,  at 
least — who  have  married  at  the  dictates  of  their 
parents,  there  is  always  some  little  cherished  cham 
ber  to  which,  despite  the  passing  years,  memory  re 
turns  with  loving,  loitering  step.  So  with  Lord 
Ichigo.  Now,  with  the  fate  of  his  beloved  child 
in  his  hands,  the  father  looked  back  upon  his  own 
life,  and  it  was  no  reflection  upon  his  excellent  and 
virtuous  wife  that  he  did  so  with  just  a  shade  of 
vague  regret. 

The  impetuous  Gonji's  passionate  words  had  not 
been  spoken  to  deaf  ears.  Lord  Saito  Ichigo  was 
determined  to  keep  his  promise  to  his  son,  what- 

45 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

ever  the  result;  for  well  he  knew  of  the  upheaval 
in  his  household  which  would  be  sure  to  follow. 

There  was,  of  course,  Ohano  to  think  of.  Her 
case  was  not  as  difficult  as  it  seemed,  he  pointed  out 
to  the  assembled  relatives.  An  orphan,  one  of  a 
family  already  allied  by  marriage  to  the  Saitos,  they 
had  taken  her  into  their  house  at  an  early  age.  They 
already  regarded  her  as  a  daughter.  As  for  a  daugh 
ter,  they  would  seek,  outside  their  own  family,  for 
a  worthy  and  suitable  husband  for  the  maiden.  In 
fact,  it  was  better  that  Ohano  should  marry  another 
than  Lord  Gonji,  since  the  latter  had  always  looked 
upon  her  as  a  sister,  and  a  union  between  them 
was,  to  him,  repugnant.  That,  indeed,  Ichigo  himself 
had  thought  at  first,  but  he  had  desired  to  please 
"  the  honorable  interior  "  (his  wife)  and  the  many 
relatives  of  his  honorable  wife. 

Thus  he  disposed  of  this  matter  briefly,  and,  al 
though  the  relatives  looked  at  each  other  with 
startled  glances,  they  had  nothing  to  say.  Some 
thing  in  the  fixed  attitude  of  the  one  they  had  hith 
erto  somewhat  contemptuously  regarded  as  weak 
and  yielding  claimed  now  their  respectful  attention. 

To  approach  the  matter  of  the  marriage  of  a 
Saito  with  a  public  geisha  required  not  alone  tact, 
but  bravery.  Hardly  had  the  father  of  Gonji 
mentioned  the  matter  when  a  storm  of  dissent  arose. 
To  a  man — to  say  nothing  of  the  countless  unseen 
female  relatives  arrayed  even  more  bitterly  against 

46 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

her — the  exalted  kinsmen  resented  even  the  sug 
gestion  of  such  a  union.  So  the  Lord  Ichigo  ap 
proached  the  subject  by  wary  paths. 

In  the  first  place,  he  pointed  out  boldly,  the  as 
sembled  ones  were  not  actually  of  the  Saito  blood, 
but  relatives  by  marriage  only;  and,  while  their 
counsel  and  advice  were  respectfully  and  gratefully 
solicited,  even  their  united  verdict  could  not  finally 
stand  out  against  the  legal  head  of  the  house.  This 
bold  statement  at  the  outset  met  a  silence  more 
eloquent  of  resentment  than  any  storm  of  words. 

It  was  imperative,  as  all  had  agreed,  continued 
Lord  Ichigo,  that  the  son  and  heir  of  the  house  of 
Saito  should  make  an  early  marriage.  He  was  the 
last  of  the  line.  The  glorious  and  heroic  ancestors 
demanded  descendants.  It  was  a  sacred  duty  to  keep 
alive  the  illustrious  seed. 

Lord  Ichigo  launched  into  a  detailed  recital  here 
of  the  notable  deeds  of  his  ancestors,  but  was  stopped 
abruptly  by  the  sarcastic  comment  of  Takedo  Isami, 
who  quoted  the  ancient  proverb,  "There  is  no  seed 
to  a  great  man!"  meaning  none  could  inherit  his 
greatness. 

This  cut  off  Ichigo's  oratory;  and,  hurt  and  dis 
turbed  at  the  quotation  as  a  reflection  upon  his 
own  shortcomings,  he  brought  up  squarely  before 
the  main  issue. 

These  were  the  days  of  enlightenment,  when  the 
iron-clad  ships  of  war  sailed  the  seas  as  far  as  the 

47 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

great  Western  lands ;  when  the  Japanese  had  accepted 
the  best  of  the  ways  of  the  West;  when  the  spirit 
of  the  New  Japan  permeated  every  nook  and  corner 
of  the  empire.  There  was  one  Western  privilege 
which  the  men  of  New  Japan  were  now  demanding, 
and  desired  above  all  things.  That  they  must  have : 
the  right  to  love! 

Now, "love"  is  not  a  very  proper  word,  according 
to  the  Japanese  notion  of  polite  speech.  Hence  the 
attitude  of  the  relatives.  Nor  did  the  frigid  at 
mosphere  melt  in  the  slightest  before  the  flow  of 
fervid  eloquence  that  the  father  of  Gonji  brought 
to  the  defense  of  this  reprehensible  weakness. 

Takedo  Isami,  who  seemed  to  have  assumed  the 
position  of  leader  and  dictator  among  the  relatives, 
arose  slowly  to  his  feet,  and,  thrusting  out  a  pugna 
cious  chin,  asked  for  the  right  to  speak.  He  was 
short,  dark,  with  the  face  of  a  fighter  and  the  body 
of  a  dwarf. 

Admitting  the  right  of  man  to  love,  he  said  it 
was  better  to  hide  this  weakness,  and,  by  all  means, 
fight  its  insidious  effort  to  enter  the  household. 
Only  men  of  low  morals  married  for  love.  Duty  was 
so  beautiful  a  thing  that  it  brought  its  own  reward. 
The  proper  kind  of  love — the  lofty  and  the  pure — 
declared  the  uncle  of  Ohano,  came  always  after 
marriage,  and  sanctified  the  union.  That  the  last 
of  a  great  race,  in  whose  keeping  the  ancestors  had 
confidently  placed  the  family  honor,  should  con- 

48 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

template  a  union  of  mere  love  and  passion  with  a 
notorious  and  public  geisha  was  a  gratuitous  and 
cruel  insult  not  alone  to  his  many  living  relatives — 
and  they  of  his  mother's  side  were  equally  of  his 
blood — but  to  the  ancestors. 

As  the  uncle  of  Ohano  reseated  himself  a  low 
murmur  of  approbation  broke  out  from  the  circle. 
Gloomy  looks  were  turned  toward  Ichigo,  whose 
face  had  become  curiously  fixed.  Far  from  weaken 
ing  his  resolve,  his  pride  had  been  stung  to  the 
quick.  Nothing,  he  told  himself  inwardly,  would 
cause  him  to  retreat  from  the  position  he  had 
taken.  He  looked  Takedo  Isami  squarely  in  the 
eye  ere  he  spoke. 

The  honorable  Takedo  Isami 's  remarks,  he  de 
clared,  were  a  reflection  upon  his  own,  since  they 
concerned  one  whom  the  ancestors  and  the  Lord 
Saito  Gonji  deemed  worthy  to  honor.  Moreover, 
it  was  both  vain  and  reprehensible  to  cast  a  stone 
at  a  profession  honored  by  all  intelligent  Japanese. 
It  was  of  established  knowledge  that  often  the 
geishas  were  recruited  from  the  noblest  families  in 
Japan.  It  was  absurd  to  regard  them  with  disdain, 
as  apparently  had  latterly  become  the  fashion. 
There  was  no  great  event  in  the  history  of  the 
nation  since  feudal  times  wherein  the  geisha  had 
not  played  her  part  nobly.  The  greatest  of  sacrifices 
she  had  made  for  her  country  and  the  Mikado. 
There  were  instances,  too  famous  to  need  repeating, 

49 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

of  the  most  exquisite  martyrdom.  The  Emperor, 
the  nobility,  the  priests — all  delighted  to  do  her 
honor.  Only  the  ignorant  assumed  to  despise  her. 
She  was  in  reality  the  darling  and  the  pride  of  the 
entire  nation.  One  would  as  soon  dream  of  being 
without  the  flowers  and  the  birds,  and  all  the  other 
joyous  things  of  life,  as  the  geisha.  Who  was  it, 
then,  dared  to  reflect  upon  the  most  charming  of 
Japanese  institutions? 

Up  sprang  Takedo  Isami,  his  hand  raised,  his 
dark  face  flushed  with  fury,  despite  the  restraint 
he  sought  to  exercise  upon  his  features.  His  voice 
was  under  control,  and.  he  spoke  with  incisive 
bitterness. 

His  honorable  kinsman,  he  loudly  declared,  wished 
but  to  confuse  the  issue.  No  one  denied  the  virtues 
of  the  geisha;  also  the  undoubted  fact  that  many 
of  them  came  from  the  impoverished  families  of 
the  samourai.  Nevertheless,  charming  and  de 
sirable  as  she  was,  she  had  not  been  educated  to 
be  the  mother  of  a  great  race.  Her  lithe,  twisting, 
dancing  little  body  was  not  meant  to  bear  children. 
Her  light,  frivolous  mind  was  ill-fitted  to  instruct 
one's  sons  and  daughters.  Society  had  set  her  in 
her  proper  place.  It  was  against  all  precedents  to 
take  her  from  her  sphere.  One  did  not  desire  as  a 
mate  through  life  a  creature  of  mere  beauty,  any 
more  than  one  would  care  to  take  one's  daily  bowl 
of  rice  from  a  fragile  work  of  art  which  would  shat- 

50 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

ter  at  the  mere  contact  of  the  sturdy  chop-sticks 
against  it. 

Such  a  storm  of  dissent  and  discussion  now  arose 
that  it  was  impossible  for  the  father  of  Gonji  to  hear 
his  own  voice,  and  indeed  all  seemed  to  make  an 
effort  to  drown  it.  So  he  summoned  servants,  and 
coolly  bade  them  put  the  amado  (outside  sliding 
walls)  in  place,  lest  the  unseemly  noise  of  wordy 
strife  be  heard  by  some  passing  neighbor — for  the 
Japanese  esteem  it  a  disgrace  to  engage  in  contro 
versy.  Then,  when  the  doors  were  in  place,  Lord 
Saito  Ichigo  gravely  bowed  to  the  assembled  rela 
tives,  and,  taking  his  son  by  the  arm,  bade  them  good 
night,  advising  that  they  argue  the  matter  among 
themselves,  without  his  unnecessary  presence. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HE  most  dreaded  moment  of  a  Japanese 
girl's  life  is  when  she  enters  the  house 
of  the  mother-in-law.  Her  future  hap 
piness,  she  knows,  is  in  the  hands  of 
this  autocratic  and  all-powerful  lady. 
Meekly  the  wise  bride  enters,  with  propitiating 
smiles  and  gifts,  robed  in  her  most  inconspicuous 
gown,  her  aim  being  not  to  enhance  whatever  beauty 
she  may  possess,  but,  if  possible,  to  hide  it. 

Far  more  necessary  is  it  for  her  to  have  the  good 
will  of  the  mother-in-law  than  that  of  the  husband. 
It  is  even  possible  for  the  mother-in-law,  for  certain 
causes,  to  divorce  the  young  wife.  In  point  of  fact, 
the  bride  goes  on  trial  not  to  her  husband,  but  to  her 
husband's  parents.  It  depends  entirely  upon  their 
verdict  whether  she  shall  be  "returned"  or  not.  In 
most  cases,  however,  where  the  marriage  is  arranged 
between  the  families,  there  is  the  desire  to  please  the 
family  of  the  bride;  and  it  is  more  often  the  case 
than  not  that  the  parents  of  the  husband  re 
ceive  the  little,  fearful  bride  with  open  arms  and 
hearts. 

The  geisha  is  not  educated  for  marriage.     From 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

her  earliest  years,  indeed,  she  is  taught  that  her 
office  in  life  is  merely  to  entertain. 

In  the  case  of  the  Spider,  she  had  even  less  oppor 
tunity  for  knowing  the  rules  that  prevailed  in  such 
matters.  She  had  been  educated  by  the  witless  wife 
of  the  geisha-keeper.  All  her  short  life  had  been 
spent  in  aiding  nature  to  make  her  more  beautiful, 
more  charming.  The  most  important  thing  in  life, 
the  thing  that  brought  rare  smiles  of  admiration  to 
even  the  sternest  lips,  was  to  be  beautiful,  witty, 
and  charming. 

So  the  Spider  set  out  for  the  Saito  house  with 
a  light  and  fearless  heart,  confident  in  the  power  of 
her  beauty  and  witchery  to  win  even  the  most 
frosty-hearted  of  mothers-in-law.  Arrayed  in  the 
most  gorgeous  robe  the  geisha-house  afforded,  with 
huge  flowers  in  her  hair,  her  little  scarlet  fan  fluttering 
at  her  breast,  attended  by  her  no  less  gaudily  dressed 
maiden  and  apprentice,  Omi,  and  followed  almost 
to  the  gates  of  the  estate  by  a  procession  of  well- 
meaning  friends  and  former  comrades,  the  geisha 
entered  the  ancestral  home  of  the  illustrious  family. 
For  just  a  moment,  ere  she  entered,  she  paused 
upon  the  threshold,  a  premonitory  thrill  of  fear 
seizing  her.  She  clung  to  the  supporting  hand  of 
the  garrulous  Omi,  whose  shrill  and  acid  little 
tongue  already  grew  mute  in  the  silent  halls  of  the 
shiro  (mansion). 

Presently  they  were  ushered  into  the  ozashiki, 

5  53 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

and  the  Spider  became  conscious  of  the  stiff  and 
ceremonious  figures  standing  back  coldly  by  the 
screens,  their  gowns  seeming  in  the  subdued  light 
of  the  room  of  a  similar  dull  color  to  the  satin  fusuma 
of  the  walls,  their  shining  topknots  undecorated  with 
flower  or  ornament,  their  thin,  unmoving  lips  and 
eyes  almost  closed  in  cold,  unsmiling  scrutiny  of 
the  intruder,  who  seemed,  like  some  brilliant  butter 
fly,  to  have  dropped  in  their  midst  from  another 
world. 

The  women  of  the  household — and  these  com 
prised  the  mother,  two  austere  maternal  aunts,  and 
Takedo  Ohano-san  (she  who  was  to  have  been  the 
bride  of  Lord  Gonji)  —  surveyed  the  Spider  with 
narrow,  keen  eyes  that  took  in  every  detail  of  her 
flaming  gown,  her  dazzling  coiffure,  flower-laden, 
and,  beneath,  the  exquisite  little  face,  with  wide 
and  starlit  eyes  that  looked  at  them  now  in  friendly 
appeal. 

There  was  no  word  spoken.  Nothing  but  the 
sighing,  hissing  sound  of  indrawn  breaths,  as  with 
precise  formality  they  made  their  obeisances  to  the 
bride. 

In  vain  did  the  wandering  eyes  of  the  geisha  scan 
the  farthermost  corner  of  the  great  room  in  search 
of  her  lover,  or  even  his  seemingly  friendly  father. 
There  were  only  the  women  there  to  receive  her. 

Dimly,  now,  she  recalled  hearing  or  reading  some 
where  that  this  was  a  fashion  followed  by  many 

54 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

families — the  reception  of  the  bride  at  first  alone  by 
the  women  of  the  house,  who  were  later  to  present 
her  to  the  assembled  relatives.  But  why  this  discon 
certing  silence?  Why  the  cold,  unfriendly,  lofty  gaze 
of  these  unmoving  women?  They  stood  like  grave 
automata,  regarding  sternly  the  bride  of  the  Lord 
Saito  Gonji. 

The  smile  upon  the  geisha's  lips  flickered  away 
tremulously;  her  little  head  drooped  like  a  flower; 
she  closed  her  eyes  lest  the  threatening  tears  might 
£aH. 

A  voice,  cold,  harsh,  and  with  that  note  of  com 
mand  of  one  in  authority  addressing  a  servant,  at 
last  broke  the  silence. 

"It  is  my  wish,"  said  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo, 
"that  you  retire  to  your  chamber,  and  there  remove 
the  garments  of  your  trade." 

So  strange  and  unexpected  were  the  words  that 
at  first  the  Spider  did  not  realize  that  they  could 
possibly  be  addressed  to  her.  She  looked  up,  be 
wildered,  and  encountered  the  steely  gaze  of  the 
mother-in-law.  Moonlight  never  forgot  that  first 
glance.  In  the  unrelenting  gaze  bent  upon  her  she 
read  what  brought  havoc  and  pain  to  her  heart, 
for  all  the  stored-up  resentment  and  hatred  that 
burned  within  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo  showed  now 
in  her  face.  Her  voice  droned  on  with  mechanical, 
incisive  calmness,  but  always  with  the  cruel  and 
harsh  tone  of  contemptuous  command: 

55 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"It  is  my  wish  that  your  maiden  of  the  geisha- 
house  be  returned  at  once  to  her  proper  home." 

She  clapped  her  hands  precisely  twice,  and  a 
serving-woman  answered  the  summons  and  knelt 
respectfully  to  take  the  order  of  her  mistress. 

"You  will  conduct  the  wife  of  the  Lord  Saito 
Gonji  to  her  chamber." 

The  servant  crossed  to  the  still  kneeling  Moon 
light,  and  while  the  latter,  mystified,  looked  dumbly 
at  the  exalted  but,  to  her,  horrible  lady,  she  assisted 
the  Spider  to  arise.  Mechanically  and  fearfully, 
pausing  not  even  at  the  wrathful,  sobbing  outcry 
that  had  broken  loose  from  Omi,  she  followed  in 
the  wake  of  the  serving-maid. 

Presently  she  found  herself  in  an  empty  chamber, 
unlike  any  she  had  known  in  the  geisha-house,  with 
its  golden  matting  shining  like  glass,  and  its  lacquer 
latticed  walls  of  water-paper,  and  the  sliding  screens, 
rare  and  exquisite  works  of  art.  Here  the  maid  fell  to 
work  upon  the  geisha,  removing  every  vestige  of  her 
attire  and  substituting  the  plain  but  elegant  flowing 
robes  of  a  lady  of  rank. 

From  the  geisha's  hair  she  removed  the  ornaments 
and  the  poppies.  She  swept  it  down,  like  a  cloud 
of  lacquer,  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  girl,  then  drew 
it  up  into  the  stiff  and  formal  mode  proper  for  one 
of  her  class.  From  the  girl's  face  she  wiped  the  last 
trace  of  rouge  and  powder,  revealing  the  rosy,  shining 
skin  beneath,  clear  and  clean  as  a  baby's. 

56 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

When  she  emerged  from  the  hands  of  the  maid, 
Moonlight  looked  at  herself  curiously  in  the  small 
mirror  tendered  her,  and  for  a  moment  she  stared, 
dumfounded  at  the  face  that  looked  back  at  her. 
It  seemed  so  strangely  young,  despite  its  wide  and 
wounded  eyes.  Though  she  was  in  reality  more 
charming  than  ever,  seeming  like  one  who  had  come 
from  a  fresh  and  invigorating  bath,  the  geisha  felt 
that  the  last  vestige  of  her  beauty  had  fled.  Within 
her  heart  arose  a  panic-stricken  fear  of  the  effect 
of  the  metamorphosis  upon  her  lord.  She  wished 
ardently  she  were  back  in  the  noisy  geisha-house, 
with  the  maidens  clamoring  about  her  and  the 
apprentices  vieing  with  one  another  in  imitating 
her.  She  put  the  mirror  behind  her.  Her  lips 
trembled  so  she  could  hardly  compress  them,  and 
to  avoid  the  scrutiny  of  the  maid  she  moved 
blindly  to  the  shoji.  There  she  stared  out  unsee- 
ingly  at  the  landscape  before  her,  heroically  try 
ing  to  choke  back  the  tears  that  would  force  their 
way  and  dripped  down  her  dimpled  cheeks  like 
rain. 

Some  one  whispered  her  name,  very  softly,  ador 
ingly.  She  turned  and  looked  at  him — her  young 
bridegroom,  with  his  pale  face  alight  with  happiness. 
She  tried  to  answer  him,  but  even  his  name  eluded 
her.  It  was  the  first  time  they  had  been  alone  to 
gether,  the  first  time  they  had  seen  each  other  since 
that  night  in  the  gardens  of  the  Saito. 

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THE     HONORABLE    MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"Why,  how  beautiful  thou  art!"  he  stammered. 
"More  so  even  than  I  had  dreamed!" 

He  was  very  close  to  her  now,  and  almost  uncon 
sciously  she  leaned  against  him.  His  arms  enfolded 
her  rapturously,  and  she  felt  his  young  cheek  warm 
against  her  own. 


CHAPTER  IX 

HE  mistake — you  will  admit  it  was  a 
mistake? — was  to  have  countenanced 
such  a  match  at  all,"  said  the  Lady 
Saito  Ichigo. 

Her  husband's  manner  was  less  sure, 
less  unyielding  than  it  had  been  in  many  days.  In 
deed,  there  was  a  slightly  apologetic  tone  in  his  voice, 
and  he  avoided  the  angry  eyes  of  his  spouse.  He 
too  had  seen  the  arrival  of  the  Spider! 

"Well,  well,  let  us  admit  it,  then,  for  the  sake  of 
peace.  The  marriage  was  a  mistake.  But  consider, 
our  son's  happiness — nay,  his  very  life! — was  at 
stake. " 

He  lowered  his  voice. 

"I  will  tell  you  in  confidence  that  which  I  had 
discovered.  They  had  already  made  their  plans  to 
marry." 

"Pff!"  Lady  Saito  waved  the  matter  aside  as 
unbelievable.  "Will  you  tell  me  how  they  were  to 
do  this  thing?  Marriage,  fortunately,  is  not  such 
an  easy  matter  without  the  consent  of  the  parents. 
Moreover,  the  woman  was  under  bonds  to  her 
keeper." 

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THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

"You  forget  there  are  other  unions  possible  to 
lovers.  You  should  know  that  many  such  start 
bravely  on  the  long  journey  to  the  Meido  when  it 
is  impossible  to  marry  in  this  life." 

Lady  Saito  turned  her  face  slowly  toward  her 
husband  and  fixed  him  with  a  piercing,  bitter  glare. 

"That,"  said  Ichigo,  gently,  "was  the  union  con 
templated  by  our  children." 

His  wife  drew  in  her  breath  in  that  peculiar,  hiss 
ing  fashion  of  the  Japanese.  Her  beady  little  eyes 
glittered  like  fire. 

"That  was  what  she — the  Spider  woman — in 
duced  my  son  to  do!  You  see,  do  you  not,  how 
completely  she  has  seduced  him — even  from  his 
duty  to  his  parents  and  his  ancestors?" 

She  beat  out  the  minute  blaze  from  her  pipe, 
digging  into  it  with  her  forefinger.  Then,  first 
coughing  harshly  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
young  people,  she  called  out  loudly: 

"Come  hither,  if  you  please!  I  say,  come!  You 
seem  to  forget  you  are  no  longer  in  the  geisha-house. 
It  is  the  voice  of  supreme  authority  which  summons 
you  now.  A  cup  of  tea,  if  you  please — and  water 
for  my  honorable  feet!" 

She  repeated  the  demand  twice,  in  a  peremptory 
voice;  and  now  she  arose  to  her  feet  and  advanced 
a  step  almost  threateningly  toward  the  young  couple. 

They  had  been  smiling  into  each  other's  eyes. 
They  were  oblivious  of  everything  and  every  one  in 

60 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

the  room,  for  they  were  in  that  exalted  and  en 
raptured  condition  of  first  love  which  makes  the  in 
dividual  seem  almost  stupid  and  obtuse  to  all  save 
the  loved  one.  Only  dimly  the  words  of  their 
mother  had  reached  them,  and  they  stirred  like 
children  rudely  awakened  from  some  beautiful 
dream.  The  smile  was  still  on  the  face  of  the  girl 
as  she  turned  toward  her  mother-in-law;  but  it 
slowly  faded,  leaving  her  pale,  confused,  and  tim 
orous.  She  met  the  malevolent  gaze  of  the  older 
woman,  and  began  to  tremble. 

She  tried  to  speak,  and  her  hand  reached  out 
flutteringly  toward  her  husband — a  charming,  help 
less  little  gesture  that  warmed  him  to  the  soul.  He 
inclosed  the  little  reaching  hand,  and  thus,  hand 
in  hand,  they  faced  the  enraged  lady. 

"Your  manners,  my  good  girl,  are  in  keeping 
with  the  geisha-house.  Is  it  the  fashion  there  to 
ignore  the  voice  of  authority?" 

The  bride's  large,  dark  eyes  had  widened  in  inno 
cent  surprise.  Only  partially  she  seemed  to  com 
prehend  the  older  woman's  attitude.  She  had  been 
but  a  day  in  the  house  of  the  parents-in-law.  No 
one  as  yet  had  taught  her,  the  cherished,  petted, 
adored  star  of  the  House  of  Slender  Pines,  that  the 
position  of  a  daughter-in-law  is  often  as  lowly  as 
that  of  a  servant.  Not  even  by  Matsuda  had  she 
ever  been  thus  offensively  addressed.  She  said, 
stammeringly : 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"I — I — have  not  heard  the  voice  of  which  you 
speak,  august  lady." 

A  cruel  smile  curled  the  lips  of  her  mother-in-law. 

"Then  it  is  time,  my  girl,  that  you  kept  your  ears 
wide  open." 

She  sat  down  upon  her  heels  abruptly  by  the 
hibachi. 

"Tea  is  desirable  for  the  honorable  insides. 
Water  for  my  feet,  which  are  tired!" 

The  girl's  eyes  turned  inquiringly  toward  her 
husband.  He  had  grown  darkly  red.  For  a  moment 
he  seemed  about  to  speak  protestingly  to  his  mother; 
then  in  a  whisper  he  murmured  to  his  bride: 

"It  is  your— duty!" 

Moonlight's  shocked  glance  had  gone  from  her 
husband's  face  to  the  opposite  shoji.  There,  in 
dumb  show,  a  maid  beckoned  to  her.  Without  a 
word  her  lovely  little  head  bowed  in  meek  assent; 
she  began  upon  her  first  menial  task. 

When  she  was  gone  Gonji  looked  scowlingly  at 
the  back  of  his  mother's  head — she  had  turned  her 
face  rigidly  from  him.  He  felt  keenly  the  danger 
threatening  his  wife,  the  one  he  adored.  He  knew 
the  exact  power  in  the  hands  of  the  mother-in-law, 
the  cruel  whip  of  authority  it  was  possible  for  her 
to  wield.  That  Moonlight  would  be  forced  to 
succumb  to  the  common  lot  of  many  unhappy 
wives  he  had  not  realized.  Secretly  he  determined 
to  help  her  in  every  way  possible  within  his  power. 

62 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"What  has  come  over  you?"  His  mother's  voice 
broke  upon  his  miserable  reverie,  and  it  was  as  harsh 
as  the  one  she  employed  to  his  wife.  "Is  it  a  new 
fashion  of  the  geisha-house  perchance — to  answer  a 
parent's  question  with  silence?" 

"Did  you  question  me,  mother?  I  am  sorry  I 
did  not  hear  you." 

"Oh,  it  is  of  no  consequence.  Besides,  you  are  not 
listening,  even  now.  Your  eyes  are  still  upon  the 
screen  through  which  the  insignificant  daughter-in- 
law  passed  to  do  me  service." 

He  flushed  and  bit  his  lips.  Something  in  his 
mother's  baleful  look  moved  him  to  an  impetuous 
cry: 

"Mother!  Do  not  hate  my  wife!  If  you  could 
but  know  her  as  she  is,  so  sweet  and  lovely  and — " 

"There  is  no  medicine  for  a  fool!"  snarled  his 
mother,  enraged  at  the  boy's  apparent  infatuation. 

Moonlight,  who  had  pushed  the  sliding  doors  open, 
heard  the  words,  and  now  she  paused,  looking  from 
one  to  the  other.  Gonji  hastened  across  to  her  and 
seized  the  pail  of  water  from  her  hand. 

"It  is  too  heavy  for  hands  so  small — and  so 
lovely!"  he  cried,  and  then,  as  though  aghast  at 
his  own  words,  he  again  pleadingly  faced  his 
mother. 

"We  have  many  servants.  Why  give  such  em 
ployment  to  my  wife?" 

"Since  when,"  demanded  the  mother,  hoarsely, 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"did  a  childless  son  become  master  in  his  father's 
house?" 

"These  are  modern  times,  mother,"  he  protested. 
"She  has  not  been  bred  for  service  such  as  this!" 

"Then  it  is  time  we  undertook  her  education," 
said  his  mother,  ominously.  "In  the  house  of  the 
honorable  mother-in-law  she  will  quickly  learn  her 
proper  place." 

She  put  out  her  feet,  and  the  girl  knelt  and  washed 
them. 

Alone  that  evening  in  their  room,  they  clung  to 
gether  like  frightened  children.  It  had  been  a  hard, 
a  cruel  day  for  both. 

"It  is  true,"  she  said,  searching  his  face  in  the 
hope  of  finding  a  denial  there,  "that  your  parents 
bitterly  hate  me." 

' '  They  will  outgrow  it.  It  is  not  so  with  my  father, 
and  later  you  will  win  my  mother's  affection.  Your 
sweetness,  beauty,  goodness,  beloved  one,  will  win 
her  even  against  her  will." 

She  held  him  back  from  her,  with  her  two  little 
hands  resting  flatly  on  his  breast. 

"They  despise  me  because  I  am  a  geisha?  That 
is  why  they  treat  me  so." 

"No,  it  is  not  that  only.  It  is  often  the  case  at 
first  in  the  house  of  the  parents-in-law.  It  is  your 
duty  to  serve  them — to  obey  even  their  cruel  caprices. 
But" — and  he  drew  her  into  a  warm  embrace — "it 
will  not  be  for  long!  Maybe  a  year — longer,  if  the 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

gods  decree  it!  You  can  bear  it  for  a  little  while, 
can  you  not,  for  me?" 

"And  after  that?"  she  persisted,  with  the  clear- 
eyed  innocence  of  a  child. 

"After  that?  Why,  the  gods  are  good!"  he  cried, 
joyously.  "We  will  have  our  own  home.  The 
humblest  daughter-in-law  is  elevated  with  the  com 
ing  of  an  heir!" 

Her  eyes  were  very  wide,  and  in  their  dark  depths 
he  saw  a  piteous  look  of  terror  there.  She  caught 
at  his  hand  and  clung  to  it. 

"Gonji!  Suppose — suppose  it  is  not  possible  for 
me — to  please  the  gods!"  she  gasped.  "Ah!" — as 
he  hastened  to  reassure  her — "it  is  said  by  the  wise 
ones  that  a  geisha  is  but  a  fragile  toy,  for  transient 
pleasure  only,  but  with  neither  the  body  nor  the 
heart  to  mother  a  race!" 


CHAPTER  X 

|IFE  for  a  young  wife  in  the  house  of 
her  parents-in-law  in  Japan  is  seldom  a 
bed  of  roses.  Of  the  entire  family  she 
is,  up  to  a  certain  period,  the  most  in 
significant.  Under  the  most  galling  cir 
cumstances  the  Japanese  bride  remains  meek,  duti 
ful,  patient.  She  dare  not  even  look  too  fondly  for 
comfort  from  her  husband,  lest  she  arouse  the 
jealousy  of  the  august  lady,  for  no  woman  can,  with 
equanimity,  endure  the  thought  that  her  adored 
son  prefers  another  to  herself. 

Moonlight's  lot  was  harder  than  that  of  most 
brides,  for,  besides  the  menial  tasks  assigned  her, 
she  was  obliged  to  endure  the  veiled,  insulting 
references  to  her  former  caste,  and  to  carry  always 
with  her  the  knowledge  that  she  was  not  alone 
despised  but  hated  by  her  husband's  people. 

There  was  one  compensation,  however.  Far  from 
decreasing,  the  love  of  the  young  Lord  Gonji  for 
his  beautiful  wife  grew  ever  stronger.  It  was  im 
possible,  moreover,  for  him  to  conceal  the  state  of 
his  heart  from  the  lynx-eyed,  passionately  jealous 
mother,  with  the  consequence  that  she  let  no  oppor- 

66 


THE    HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

tunity  escape  her  of  making  her  daughter's  life  a 
burden.  In  this  venomous  task  she  was  ably 
assisted  by  Ohano,  who  was  still  a  member  of  the 
household. 

In  contrast  to  the  treatment  accorded  the  young 
wife,  Ohano  was  cherished  and  made  the  constant 
companion  and  confidante  of  Lady  Saito.  Always 
healthy,  plump,  and  active,  she  presented  at  this 
time  a  striking  contrast  to  the  wistful-eyed  and 
fragile  Moonlight,  who  looked  as  if  a  breath  might 
blow  her  away.  She  was  given  to  dreaming  and 
star-gazing,  a  girl  devoted  to  poetry  and  music.  In 
the  geisha-house  her  fresh,  young  laughter  had 
mingled  at  all  times  with  the  other  joyous  sounds. 
Now,  however,  she  seemed  under  some  spell.  She 
was  a  different  creature,  one  who  even  moved 
uncertainly,  starting  painfully  at  the  slightest  mo 
tion  and  flushing  and  paling  whenever  addressed. 

She  had  set  herself  the  task  of  studying  "The 
Greater  Learning  for  Women,"  and  now,  pain 
fully,  from  day  to  day,  she,  who  had  once  gaily 
ordered  all  about  her,  tried  to  obey  meekly  the 
strict  rules  laid  down  for  her  sex  by  Confucius. 

No  matter  how  humiliating  the  task  set  her,  how 
harshly,  and  even  cruelly,  the  tongue  of  the  mother- 
in-law  lashed  her,  she  made  no  murmur  of  com 
plaint.  But  daily  she  visited  the  Temple.  While  it 
seemed  as  if  her  back  must  break  from  weariness,  she 
would  remain  upon  her  knees  for  hours  at  the  shrine, 

67 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

murmuring  ever  one  insistent,  passionate  prayer  to 
the  gods. 

The  first  year  passed  away,  and  there  was  no 
change  in  the  household  of  the  Saitos. 

A  letter  came  to  the  young  wife  from  the  wife  of 
Matsuda,  entreating  her  former  favorite  to  come 
to  her  for  a  little  visit.  The  letter  was  laid  meekly 
before  the  mother-in-law,  and,  to  the  girl's  surprise, 
permission  was  granted.  Her  husband  took  her  to 
her  former  home  and  left  her  there  among  her  friends. 

They  had  both  expected  that  her  health  would  be 
improved  by  the  change,  by  the  reunion  with  old 
friends  and  comrades,  the  brightness  and  cheer  of  the 
House  of  Pleasure,  and  the  throng  of  admiring  maidens 
and  geishas  about  her.  But,  instead,  the  place  had  a 
depressing  effect  upon  the  former  geisha.  The  lights, 
the  constant  strumming  of  drum  and  samisen,  the 
singing,  the  continuous  dancing  and  chatting,  bewil 
dered  her,  and  before  the  week  was  over  she  returned 
to  her  husband's  home.  Hardly,  however,  had  she 
entered  the  Saito  house  when  a  new  fear  seized  her. 

Something  in  the  silent,  speculating  gaze  of  her 
mother-in-law  smote  her  heart  with  terror.  Of 
what  was  the  older  woman  thinking,  she  wondered, 
and  what  had  put  that  curious  smile  of  satisfied 
triumph  upon  the  face  of  Ohano? 

Troubled,  she  begged  her  husband  to  tell  her 
exactly  of  what  they  had  talked  in  her  absence. 
He  reassured  her,  told  her  she  but  imagined  a 

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THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

change;  but  he  held  her  so  closely,  so  savagely  to  his 
breast  that  she  was  surer  than  ever  that  something 
menaced  their  happiness. 

The  following  morning  she  trembled  and  turned  very 
pale  at  a  sneering  hint  conveyed  by  the  mother-in-law. 

The  fact  that  she  was  childless  at  the  end  of  the 
first  year,  then,  had  become  a  subject  of  remark  in 
the  family! 

The  Lady  Saito  remarked  sarcastically  that 
among  certain  classes  it  was  customary  for  childless 
women  to  drink  of  the  Kiyomidzu  Temple  springs. 
They  were  said  to  contain  miraculous  qualities  by 
which  one  might  attain  to  motherhood. 

Moonlight  said  nothing,  but  unconsciously  her 
glance  stole  to  her  husband.  He  had  grown  un 
comfortably  red,  and  she  saw  his  scowling  face 
turned  upon  his  mother. 

Later,  very  timidly,  she  begged  his  permission  to 
drink  of  the  springs.  He  was  opposed  to  it,  saying 
it  was  a  superstition  of  the  ignorant;  his  mother 
but  jested.  She  pleaded  so  insistently,  and  seemed 
to  take  the  matter  so  deeply  to  heart,  that  at  last 
he  consented. 

And  so,  with  this  last  frantic  hope,  the  geisha 
whose  flashing  beauty  and  talents  had  made  her  a 
queen  in  the  most  exacting  of  the  tea-houses  of 
Kioto  now  joined  this  melancholy  band  of  childless 
women  who  thus  desperately  seek  to  please  the 
gods  by  drinking  of  then*  favored  waters. 

6 


CHAPTER  XI 


]S  a  matter  of  expediency,  the  father  told 
Gonji,  it  would  be  necessary  to  divorce 
Moonlight.  One  could  not  allow  one's 
family  to  be  wiped  out  because  of  a 
matter  of  mere  sentiment  and  passion. 
Doubtless,  the  young  wife,  who  had  proved  a  most 
docile  and  obedient  daughter-in-law  in  every  way, 
would  see  the  necessity  of  dissolving  the  union. 

Gonji  pleaded  for  time,  one,  two,  three  more 
years.  Moonlight  was  very  young.  They  could 
afford  to  wait. 

His  father,  at  heart  as  soft  toward  his  son  as  his 
wife  was  stern,  surrendered,  as  always. 

"Arrange  it  with  your  mother,  then.  I  am  going 
to  Tokio  for  a  week." 

It  was  a  difficult  subject  to  broach  to  his  mother, 
and  Gonji  avoided  it  fearfully;  nor  did  he  mention 
the  matter  to  his  wife,  whose  wistful  glance  he  had 
begun  to  avoid.  Indeed,  he  saw  less  of  his  wife 
each  day,  for  his  mother  was  careful  to  keep  the 
girl  constantly  employed  in  her  service,  and  in  the 
intervals  of  leisure  Moonlight  would  go  to  the 
shrines  or  to  the  Kiyomidzu  springs.  Gonji,  more- 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

over,  was  making  an  effort  to  conceal  somewhat  of 
his  affection  for  his  wife  from  his  mother  in  an 
effort  to  conciliate  her;  and  he  even  made  advances 
toward  the  older  lady,  waiting  upon  her  with  great 
thoughtfulness  and  seeming  anxious  for  her  constant 
comfort  and  happiness.  But  all  his  efforts  met 
with  satirical  and  acid  remarks  from  his  mother, 
and  not  for  a  moment  did  she  change  in  her  attitude 
to  the  young  wife. 

The  subject,  avoided  as  it  had  been  by  the  young 
husband,  was  bound  to  come  up  at  last.  It  was 
plain  that  it  occupied  the  mind  of  Lady  Saito  at 
this  time  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else.  She  broached 
it  herself  one  morning  at  breakfast,  when,  besides 
her  son  and  her  daughter-in-law,  Ohano  was 
present,  ostentatiously  vieing  with  the  young  wife 
in  replenishing  the  older  woman's  plate  and 
cup. 

"Now,"  said  Lady  Saito,  abruptly,  turning  over 
her  rice  bowl  to  signify  her  meal  was  ended,  "it 
must  be  plain  to  both  of  you  that  things  cannot 
continue  as  they  are.  The  fate  of  all  our  ancestors 
is  menaced.  Come,  Moonlight,  lift  up  your  head. 
Suggest  some  solution  of  the  problem." 

"I  will  double  my  offerings  at  the  shrines,"  said 
the  young  creature,  with  quivering  lips;  and  at  the 
contemptuous  movement  of  her  mother-in-law,  and 
the  smile  upon  Ohano's  face,  she  added,  desperately : 
"I  will  wear  my  knees  out,  if  necessary.  I  will  not 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

leave  the  springs  at  all,  till  the  gods  have  heard 
my  prayer." 

Lady  Saito  tapped  her  finger  irritably  against 
the  tobacco-bon.  Ohano  solicitously  filled  and  lit 
the  long-stemmed  pipe,  and  refilled  and  relit  it  ere 
the  mother  of  Gonji  spoke  again. 

"Of  course,  it  is  very  hard.  So  is  everything  in 
life — hard!  We  learn  that  as  we  grow  older;  but 
there  are  the  comforting  words  of  the  philosophers. 
You  should  study  well  the  'Greater  Learning  for 
Women.'  Really,  my  girl,  you  will  find  there  is 
even  a  satisfaction  in  unselfishness." 

Two  red  spots,  hectic  and  feverish,  stole  into  the 
waxen  cheeks  of  the  young  wife.  Her  fingers  writhed 
mechanically.  Her  eyes  were  riveted  in  fascination 
upon  the  face  of  the  one  who  had  tormented  her 
now  for  so  long.  Wayward,  passionate,  savage  im 
pulses  swept  over  her.  She  felt  an  intense  longing 
to  strike  out — just  once! 

Something  was  touching  her  hand.  Her  fingers 
closed  spasmodically  about  Gonji's.  A  sob  rose 
stranglingly  in  her  throat,  but  she  held  herself 
stiffly  erect.  Death,  she  felt,  would  be  preferable, 
rather  than  that  they  should  see  how  she  was 
suffering. 

The  mother-in-law's  voice  droned  on  monoto 
nously  : 

"I  have  been  well  advised  in  the  matter.  Yes, 
I  even  called  in  the  counsel  of  your  uncle,  Ohano," 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

turning  toward  Ohano,  who  was  affectionately 
waiting  upon  her.  "When  your  father  returns,  my 
children,  there  shall  be  a  family  council.  Be  assured, 
Moonlight,  that,  whatever  comes,  you  will  be  prop 
erly  supported  by  the  Saito  family  for  the  rest  of 
your  days,  though  I  have  no  doubt  at  all  but  that 
you  will  shortly  marry.  With  a  dowry  from  the 
Saito  and  a  pretty  face — well,  a  pretty  face  often 
accomplishes  astonishing  things.  See  the  case  of 
our  own  son.  It  was  apparent  to  every  one  he  was 
bewitched,  obsessed !  He  would  have  his  way !  Con 
templated  suppuku!  Forgot  his  duty  to  his  parents, 
his  ancestors — forgot  that  in  Japan  duty  is  higher 
than  love.  He  made  great  promises.  Well,  we 
listened.  At  the  time  I  bade  him  ponder  the  proverb : 
'Beware  of  a  beautiful  woman.  She  is  like  red 
pepper!' — will  burn,  sting,  is  death  to  those  who 
touch  her,  and — " 

"Mother!" 

"Is  it  a  new  custom  to  interrupt  the  head  of  the 
house?" 

The  young  man's  voice  trembled  with  repressed 
feeling,  but  there  was  a  certain  expression  of  out 
raged  dignity  in  his  face  as  he  looked  at  his  mother 
fairly. 

"In  the  absence  of  the  honorable  father,  the  son 
is  the  legitimate  head  of  the  household,"  he  said. 

It  was  the  first  time  he  had  spoken  thus  to 
her.  He  had  restrained  himself  during  this  last 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

year,  for  fear  of  bringing  down  his  mother's  wrath 
upon  the  defenseless  head  of  Moonlight. 

The  hand  that  pounded  the  ash  from  her  pipe 
trembled  now,  and  her  lips  had  become  a  thin,  com 
pressed  line.  She  started  to  arise,  but  Ohano  sprang 
to  her  assistance,  and  she  leaned  against  the  girl 
as  she  flung  back,  almost  snarlingly,  the  words  at 
her  son: 

"So  be  it,  august  authority!  We  will  await  the 
return  of  thy  father.  He  will  then  decide  the  fate 
of  this—" 

"No,  mother,"  he  broke  in,  "I  make  humble 
apology.  Speak  your  will,  but  pity  us,  your  chil 
dren.  We  desire  to  be  filial,  obedient,  but  it  is 
cruel,  hard!" 

' '  Hard ! ' '  cried  his  mother,  savagely.  "  Is  it  harder 
than  for  a  mother  to  see  her  only  son  enmeshed  in 
the  web  of  a  vile  Spider?" 

Moonlight  had  sprung  up  sharply  now.  Her  eyes 
were  like  wells  of  fire  as,  her  bosom  heaving,  she 
started  toward  the  older  woman.  A  grim  smile 
distorted  the  features  of  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo. 
As  the  girl  advanced  toward  her,  with  that  un 
consciously  threatening  motion,  this  old  woman  of 
patrician  ancestry  neither  moved  nor  retreated  a 
space.  In  her  cold,  sneering  gaze  one  read  the 
disdain  of  the  woman  of  caste  who  sees  one  whom  she 
deems  beneath  her  betray  her  lowly  origin. 

"Moonlight!"  She  felt  herself  caught  by  the 

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THE    HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

shoulders  in  a  grip  that  almost  pained.  She  caught 
but  a  glimpse  of  his  face.  It  was  livid.  Feeling 
that  he,  too,  was  deserting  her,  she  uttered  a  loud 
cry,  and  covering  her  face  with  her  sleeve,  she  fled 
from  the  room. 

And  all  that  night  she  lay  weeping  and  trembling 
in  the  arms  of  her  husband.  In  vain  he  besought 
her  not  to  abandon  herself  to  such  wild  and  terrible 
grief.  Moonlight  was  very,  very  sure,  she  told  him, 
that  all  the  gods  of  the  heavens  and  the  seas  had 
deserted  her  forever  and  forever.  She  dreamed  of 
an  abyss  into  which  she  was  pushed  and  which 
closed  inexorably  about  her,  and  from  which  not 
even  the  loving  arms  of  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji  could 
rescue  her. 


CHAPTER  XII 

HE  quiet  that  comes  before  a  tempest 
reigned  for  a  few  days  in  the  household. 
Like  a  volcano  whose  pent-up  energy  is 
the  more  violent  from  long  repression, 
it  burst  its  bounds  upon  the  return 
of  the  master. 

Day  and  night  they  renewed  the  argument. 
Now  Lord  Ichigo  was  in  firm  agreement  with  his 
wife  on  the  subject.  There  was  no  other  course. 
Moonlight  must  go.  Without  descendants,  who 
would  there  be  to  make  the  offerings  and  pray 
for  their  souls  and  those  of  the  ancestors? 

And  again  he  was  won  over  to  his  son's  side. 
Well,  it  would  do  no  harm  to  wait  another  year. 
Moonlight  was,  as  they  had  pointed  out,  still  very 
young  and  healthy.  There  was  every  likelihood 
that  she  would  bear  children. 

Lady  Saito,  however,  had  set  herself  stubbornly 
against  all  truce.  She  was  determined  now  to  be 
rid  of  the  Spider.  The  wretched  geisha-girl,  she 
alleged,  had  been  forced  into  their  illustrious  family 
through  the  mere  passion  of  a  boy.  It  was  a  matter 
of  humiliation  that  a  child  should  have  prevailed,  in 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

such  a  contention,  over  the  parents.  They  should 
have  vetoed  the  thing  at  the  outset.  Their  love 
for  their  son  should  have  but  strengthened  their 
resolve.  The  main  thing  now  was  to  be  rid  of  the 
incubus.  The  law  was  perfectly  clear  upon  the 
matter.  Never  a  simpler  case.  Doubtless,  it  was 
the  workings  of  the  gods,  who  pitied  the  ancestors. 
Here  was  a  great  family  threatened  with  extinction. 
Should  a  thousand  illustrious  and  heroic  ancestors 
then  be  doomed  to  the  cruelest  of  fates  because 
of  a  notorious  Spider  woman?  It  were  better,  de 
creed  the  stern-minded  lady,  that  the  family  commit 
honorable  suppuku  than  suffer  an  extinction  so 
contemptible. 

Against  such  a  flood  of  bitter  argument  and  in 
vective  the  young  people  could  turn  only  their 
tears  and  their  prayers. 

Then  it  seemed  as  if  the  very  hand  of  Fate  inter 
vened  to  settle  the  matter  finally.  The  war  with 
Russia  had  begun.  The  effect  of  this  news  upon 
the  Saito  family  was  electrical.  It  silenced  the 
storm  of  cruel  innuendo  and  abuse.  It  stopped  the 
battle  of  words.  All  saw  at  once  that  the  Lord 
Saito  Gonji  could  now  take  but  one  course. 

Following  the  steps  of  his  ancestors,  he  must  of 
course  be  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  war.  It  would  be 
his  duty,  his  hope,  to  give  up  his  life  for  the  Mikado. 
Therefore,  before  leaving  for  the  seat  of  war,  it 

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THE    HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

would  be  imperative  that  he  should  leave  behind 
him  in  Japan  a  lineal  descendant. 

There  was  no  need,  the  parents  now  felt  assured, 
to  speak  another  word  of  urging.  Even  the  young 
wife,  of  lowly  stock  as  she  was,  would  see  the  neces 
sity  now  of  self-sacrifice. 

Dry-eyed,  pale,  with  leaden  hearts,  the  young 
people  now  faced  each  other.  The  family  had  mer 
cifully  left  them  alone. 

She  sought  to  entrap  his  gaze,  but  persistently, 
gloomily,  he  averted  his  face.  The  delusion  which 
had  upheld  her  through  all  these  dizzy,  torturing 
months,  that  the  gods  had  chosen  one  so  humble 
as  she  to  hand  down  the  race  of  heroes,  had  dissolved 
now  into  thin  air.  Alas,  how  slender — ah,  slenderer 
than  the  imaginary  web  she  had  spun  as  the  Spider! — 
had  been  her  hold  upon  the  all-highest! 

"Gonji!  My  Lord  Gonji!"  She  caught  at  his 
hand,  entreating  his  touch.  "Do  not  turn  your 
head.  Speak  to  me.  Pardon  me  that  I  have  been 
unable  to  serve  the  ancestors — to  please  you, 
augustness!" 

"You  please  me  in  all  things,"  he  said,  roughly. 
"I  dare  not  look  at  you — now!" 

"It  will  give  me  strength  if  you  will  but  con 
descend.  The  sacrifice  will  be  sweet,  if  it  gives 
your  lordship  pleasure!" 

"Pleasure!     Gods!" 

He  broke  down  completely  and,  like  a  child, 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

buried  his  face  upon  her  bosom.  But  no  tears  came 
to  the  relief  of  the  girl.  Tremulously,  tenderly,  she 
smoothed  his  hair. 

Presently  he  put  her  from  him  and  sat  back 
looking  at  her  now  with  hungry,  somber  eyes.  She 
met  his  glance  with  a  bright  bravery.  Their  hands 
close-locked,  they  repeated  solemnly  together  the 
promise  to  marry  in  all  the  lives  yet  to  come  and  to 
travel  the  final  journey  to  Nirvana  together. 

Then: 

"There  is  satisfaction  in  performing  a  noble 
duty,"  said  he,  automatically. 

And  she : 

"It  is  a  privilege  for  one  so  humble  to  serve  the 
exalted  ancestors  of  your  excellency  in  even  so 
insignificant  a  way." 

Silence  a  moment,  during  which  he  tried  to 
speak,  but  could  not.  Then  he  burst  out  wildly: 

"A  thousand  august  ancestors  call  to  me  sternly 
from  the  noble  past."  He  covered  his  eyes,  lest  the 
wistful,  appealing  beauty  of  her  face  might  cause 
him  to  falter.  "They  entreat  me  not  to  extinguish 
their  honorable  spark  of  life.  I  am  but  the  honor 
able  custodian  of  the  seed !  I  cannot  prove  recreant 
to  its  charge!" 

A  longer  silence  fell  between  them  now,  and  when 
he  dared  again  to  look  at  her,  he  found  she  smiled, 
a  gentle,  brooding  smile,  such  as  a  gentle  moth 
er  might  have  turned  upon  him.  It  irradiated 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

and  made  beautiful  beyond  words  her  thin  little 
face. 

"I  will  speak  to  my  father!"  he  cried  out,  wildly. 
"It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  put  you  away  from 
me,  beloved  one!" 

He  made  a  savage  movement  toward  her,  as  though 
again  he  would  enfold  her  within  his  arms ;  but  now, 
as  he  advanced,  she  retreated,  her  little  speaking  hands 
held  before  her,  as  though  she  pushed  him  from  her. 

"It  is — as  it  should  be!  You  are  the  all-highest 
one,  and  I — but  a  geisha.  With  this  little  hand  I 
cannot  dip  up  the  ocean.  I  have  tried,  august  one, 
and — and — its  waters  have  engulfed  me!" 

"I  go  to  service  of  Tenshi-sama ! "  he  cried,  hoarse 
ly.  "We  may  never  meet  again  in  this  honorable 
life,  but,  ah,  there  are  a  thousand  lives  we  can 
be  sure  to  share  together!" 

"A — thousand — lives — together!"  she  repeated, 
her  eyes  closed,  her  face  as  white  as  one  dead. 

Slowly,  feeling  backward  with  her  hands,  she  groped 
her  way  to  the  shoji.  There  she  paused  a  moment 
and  looked  at  her  husband,  a  long,  deep,  enveloping 
look. 

He  heard  the  sliding  doors  trapped  between  them, 
and  listened  vainly  for  even  the  softest  fall  of  her 
footsteps.  But  the  geisha  moves  with  the  silence 
of  a  moth,  and  the  one  who  had  gone  from  him 
forever,  as  it  seemed,  had  broken  her  wings  against 
his  heart. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


JO  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji  went  to  Tokio 
the  following  day,  and  immediately  the 
machinery  of  law,  which  grinds  less 
slowly  in  Japan  than  in  many  other 
countries,  was  set  in  motion.  All  that 
wealth,  power,  influence  could  do  to  hasten  matters 
was  brought  to  bear.  Presently  the  wife  of  Lord 
Gonji  was  divorced  by  her  husband's  parents  and 
legally  barred  from  the  home  of  his  ancestors. 

No  one  knew  where  she  had  gone.  Disregarding 
and  refusing  all  the  charitable  and  gracious  offers 
and  promises  of  present  or  future  aid,  she  dis 
appeared  upon  the  night  of  her  last  interview  with 
her  husband,  going  without  even  the  customary  cere 
monious  leave-taking. 

Even  her  going,  pointed  out  the  relatives,  was 
proof  of  her  unworthiness.  The  daughter  of  a 
samourai  would  have  departed  with  a  certain  sub 
missive  dignity  and  grace,  and,  whatever  her  lacerated 
feelings,  would  have  proclaimed  her  pleasure  in  the 
act  of  the  superior  ones.  But  the  geisha-girl  fled 
in  the  night,  like  one  who  goes  in  fear  and  shame. 
Meanwhile  Ohano  was  duly  taken  to  Tokio. 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS    MOONLIGHT 

Here  in  the  presence  of  a  host  of  triumphantly 
joyous  and  exultant  relatives  she  was  married  at 
last  to  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji. 

Here,  like  a  dutiful  wife,  she  remained  in  the 
capital  by  her  husband's  side,  awaiting  the  summons 
which  would  take  him  from  her  and  give  him  eter 
nally  to  the  Emperor. 

As  a  little  boy  Gonji  had  been,  in  a  way,  fond  of 
Ohano.  She  was  of  that  chubby,  sulky  type  that 
a  small  boy  delights  to  tease.  Time  had  changed 
very  little  the  form  and  disposition  of  Ohano;  but 
what  in  a  child  had  appealed  to  his  humorous 
affection,  in  a  woman  proved  not  merely  tiresome 
but  repellent.  Mere  unadorned  flesh  has  little 
attraction  for  one  of  a  naturally  poetic  and  visionary 
temperament.  Even  the  slight  affection  he  had 
felt  for  Ohano  as  a  child  had  now  entirely  disap 
peared.  It  was  with  an  element  of  positive  loathing 
that  he  regarded  the  girl  he  had  married.  When 
his  mind  reverted  to  the  one  he  had  forsaken  on  her 
account,  he  was  filled  with  such  overwhelming 
despair  that  it  seemed  as  if  he  must  injure  himself 
— but  for  the  mighty  events  in  which  he  tried  vainly 
to  plunge  his  mind. 

No  soldier  in  all  the  Emperor's  service,  though  ani 
mated  with  the  most  lofty  patriotism  and  excitement 
as  the  times  demanded,  seized  upon  the  cause  with 
such  fanatic  zeal  as  Lord  Gonji.  Day  and  night 
he  was  among  his  men.  When  not  in  some  way 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

improving  their  equipment  and  physical  condition, 
he  was  arousing  and  stimulating  their  ardor  and 
patriotism. 

People  pointed  with  pride  to  the  young  man's 
heroic  ancestry,  and  prophesied  that  in  his  young 
body  still  glowed  that  wonderful  spark  which  would 
give  to  Japan  another  hero,  and  assure  for  all  under 
him  glorious  victory  and  triumph. 

It  seemed  as  if  it  were  impossible  for  him  to 
leave  his  men  even  to  return  to  his  temporary 
home  for  rest  and  sleep.  The  prayers  and  entreaties 
of  his  mother  and  of  his  new  wife  fell  upon  deaf  ears. 
Vainly  they  besought  him,  in  the  short  time  he  was 
yet  to  be  in  Japan,  to  remain  as  much  as  possible 
in  their  company.  They  were  sacrificing  him  for 
all  time.  Surely  even  exalted  Tenshi-sama  (the 
Mikado)  would  not  begrudge  to  them  the  little, 
precious  moments  he  might  yet  spend  in  Japan. 

Gonji  looked  at  the  pleading  women  with  blank, 
cold  eyes.  Then,  abruptly,  he  would  return  to  his 
labors. 

Never  since  the  day  they  had  married  him  to 
Ohano  had  he  voluntarily  addressed  a  single  word 
to  his  wife.  When  forced  finally  at  night  to  return 
to  her  sole  company,  he  would  creep  back  stealthily 
to  the  house  like  some  guilty  wretch  entering  upon 
some  infamous  errand.  There,  always,  he  found 
her  patiently,  dutifully  awaiting  his  coming. 

"My  dear  lord,"  she  would  humbly  say,  "though 

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THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

it  is  very  late,  I  pray  you  feed  the  honorable  insides. 
Permit  the  honorable  interior  to  wait  upon  your 
excellency." 

He  ignored  the  tray  of  viands  thus  nightly  ten 
dered  him  as  completely  as  he  did  her  words;  but 
when  she  made  officious  efforts  to  assist  him  to  un 
dress,  kneeling  in  the  attitude  of  a  servant  or  the 
lowliest  of  wives,  to  wash  his  feet,  he  would  quietly 
push  her  to  one  side,  just  as  though  she  were  some 
article  that  stood  in  his  pathway. 

Sometimes  he  would  point  silently  to  his  wife's 
couch,  thus  sternly  bidding  her  retire.  When  this 
was  accomplished,  he  would  lie  down  beside  her, 
and  not  till  the  heavy,  even,  healthy  breathing  of 
Ohano  proclaimed  she  slept  would  he  close  his  own 
weary  eyelids. 

Beside  Ohano's  blooming,  satisfied  face  (for  with 
feminine  logic  Ohano  set  her  husband's  curious 
treatment  of  her  down  to  his  absorption  in  the  war 
matter,  and  thus  in  the  proud  knowledge  of  pos 
session  still  found  happiness),  he  conjured  up  always 
that  thin,  white,  wistful  one,  whose  long  dark  eyes 
had  drawn  the  very  heart  out  of  his  breast  from 
the  moment  they  had  first  looked  into  his  own. 

Sometimes  in  the  night  he  would  arise,  to  tramp 
frenziedly  up  and  down,  as  he  pictured  the  fate 
that  might  have  befallen  the  beloved  Moonlight. 
What  had  become  of  her?  Whither  had  she  gone? 
How  would  she  fare,  now  that,  penniless  and 

84 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

without  even  her  old  employment  (for  now  in 
time  of  war  the  geishas  were  in  reduced  circum 
stances),  she  had  been  cast  adrift? 

He  cursed  his  own  folly  in  not  having  foreseen 
the  way  in  which  she  would  go;  for  not  having 
provided  for  her,  forced  her  to  acccept  at  least 
monetary  assistance  of  some  kind  from  his  family. 

His  agents  had  assured  him  she  had  not  returned 
to  Matsuda;  neither  had  a  trace  been  found  of  her 
in  any  of  the  geisha-houses  of  Tokio  or  Kioto. 
Whither,  then,  had  she  gone?  A  sick  fear  seized 
upon  him  that  she  had  started  upon  the  Long 
Journey  alone,  without  waiting  for  him,  who  had 
promised  to  tread  it  with  her.  He  knew  that  he 
would  never  know  a  moment's  peace  till  the  time 
when,  face  to  face,  they  should  meet  each  other 
upon  the  Long  Road  which  has  no  ending. 

Thus  the  wretched  nights  passed,  giving  the  un 
happy  man  little  or  no  rest;  and  that  he  might  not 
encounter  the  ingratiating  smiles  and  questions  of 
Ohano,  he  would  depart  hurriedly  ere  she  awoke, 
and  plunge  into  the  war  preparations  with  renewed 
fervor  and  desperation. 

7 


CHAPTER  XIV 

!HE  days  stretched  into  weeks;  the 
weeks  into  months.  It  is  not  possible 
to  account  for  the  various  delays  that 
arise  in  time  of  war. 

Four  months  had  passed  since  his 
marriage  to  Ohano,  when  at  last  the  welcome  sum 
mons  came.  His  honorable  regiment  was  to  go  to 
the  front! 

Gonji  felt  like  one  released  from  a  cruel  bondage. 
His  very  heart  leaped  within  him  like  a  mad  thing. 
Even  to  Ohano  he  spoke,  and  although  his  words 
had  a  deep  ulterior  meaning,  she  was  gratified  and 
elated.  They  stood  as  a  proof  at  least  to  her  of 
her  elevation.  He  had  noticed  her!  Undoubtedly 
she  had  leaped  forward  a  thousand  paces  in  the 
estimation  of  her  lord.  He  recognized  her  impor 
tance  now  at  the  crucial  moment. 

Naturally  vain  and  proud,  Ohano's  mind  had  been 
entirely  concerned  with  the  attention  she  was  at 
tracting  from  all  as  the  wife  of  the  Lord  Saito 
Gonji.  People  pointed  her  out  as  she  rode  abroad 
in  the  lacquered  carriages  of  the  Saito  family,  and 
everywhere  was  recounted  the  illustrious  history 

86 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

of  his  ancestors  and  of  her  own  important  mission, 
now  when  the  last  of  the  exalted  race  was  sacrificing 
his  life  for  Japan. 

And  now  her  lord  himself  had  condescended  to 
notice  her,  and  for  the  first  time  his  somewhat  wild 
eyes  had  looked  at  Ohano  with  an  element  of  gentle 
ness  and  kindness.  His  words  were  curious,  and 
long  after  he  was  gone  to  the  city  Ohano  turned 
them  over  in  her  mind  and  pondered  their  meaning; 
and  when,  that  night,  he  returned  to  her  for  the  last 
time,  she  begged  him  to  repeat  them,  saying  that 
the  presence  of  the  parents-in-law  had  confused  her 
hearing.  She  wished  rightly  and  clearly  to  under 
stand  his  words,  so  that  when  he  was  quite  gone 
from  her  she  might  the  better  carry  out  his  wishes. 

With  solemn  dignity  he  repeated  the  instructions: 

"Take  care  of  your  honorable  health  and  of  that 
of  my  descendant.  Choose  wisely  a  companion 
upon  the  Long  Journey,  for  it  is  lonely  to  travel. 
The  world  is  peopled  with  many  souls,  but  only 
two  may  travel  the  final  path  together." 

Again  she  pondered  the  words,  and  she  shivered 
under  her  husband's  melancholy  glance.  What  did 
the  strange  words  imply?  Consideration  for  her 
future  merely?  Surely  he  must  know  that,  as  the 
wife  of  one  so  illustrious  as  he  must  become,  she 
would  never  marry  another  in  his  place.  (Every 
Japanese  woman  resigns  her  husband  to  war 
service  with  the  proud  and  pious  belief  and  hope 

87 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

that  he  will  not  return,  but  will  gloriously  sacrifice 
life  for  the  cause.) 

Finally  she  said,  as  she  watched  his  face  stealthily : 

"It  will  be  unnecessary  for  the  humble  one  to 
choose  another  companion.  Glorious  will  be  the 
privilege  of  awaiting  the  time  when  she  will  join 
your  honor  on  the  journey." 

He  gave  her  a  deep  look,  which  seemed  to  pierce 
and  search  to  the  very  depths  of  her  heart. 

"Ohano,"  he  said,  "thou  knowest  I  did  not  marry 
thee  save  for  the  time  of  this  life." 

She  sat  up  stiffly,  mechanically,  moistening  her 
dry  lips.  All  the  petty  vanity  with  which  she  had 
upheld  herself  since  the  day  when  she  had  married 
Saito  Gonji  now  seemed  to  drop  from  her  in  shreds. 
Her  many  days  of  supreme  devotion,  and  even  ado 
ration,  for  the  Lord  Gonji — and  they  stretched  back 
as  far  as  her  childhood  days — came  up  to  torture 
her.  Looking  into  her  husband's  face,  Ohano  knew, 
without  questioning,  who  it  was  who  would  make 
the  final  precious  journey  with  him.  She  was  to 
be  wife  only  for  the  short  span  of  his  lifetime. 
That  other  one,  the  Spider — whose  image  in  effigy 
she  had  pricked  so  mercilessly  with  a  thousand 
spiteful  pins  in  order  to  destroy  her  soul,  as  she 
fain  would  have  done  her  body — she  was  to  be  the 
wife  of  Saito  Gonji  for  all  time!  She  who  had 
stolen  him  from  Ohano  upon  her  very  wedding- 
night  ! 

88 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Her  face  became  convulsed.  The  eyes  seemed  to 
have  disappeared  from  her  face.  Presently,  breath 
ing  heavily,  her  hands  clutching  her  breast  to  re 
press  the  emotion  which  would  show  despite  her 
best  efforts: 

"I  pray  you  permit  your  humble  wife  to  attend 
your  lordship  upon  the  journey,"  she  said.  "Who 
else  is  competent  to  travel  at  your  side,  my  lord?" 

He  did  not  answer  her.  He  was  looking  out  of 
an  open  shoji,  and  his  face  in  the  moonlight  seemed 
as  if  carved  in  marble,  so  set,  so  rigid,  immovable 
as  that  of  one  dead. 

Ohano  rose  desperately  to  her  feet.  She  felt 
unspeakably  weak  from  the  excess  of  her  inner 
passion.  At  that  moment  gladly  would  she  have 
exchanged  places  with  the  homeless  and  outcast 
wife  of  Saito  Gonji,  who  in  the  end  was  to  come  to 
that  eternal  bliss  so  rigorously  denied  to  Ohano. 

She  caught  at  her  husband's  hand.  He  drew  it 
up  into  his  sleeve.  There  had  never  been  any  caresses 
between  them.  Always  he  seemed  rather  to  shrink 
from  contact  with  her. 

"Lord,  let  us  call  a  family  council,  "she  cried,  shrilly. 
"Let  them  decide  where  is  my  proper  place,  Lord 
Saito  Gonji.  It  is  not  for  the  time  of  one  life  only 
that  we  marry.  I  have  plighted  my  troth  to  you 
for  all  time!" 

Slowly  he  turned;  and  the  deep,  penetrating  look 
scorched  Ohano  again. 

89 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"And  I,"  he  said,  "have  plighted  my  troth  with 
another." 

"Lord,  it  was  dissolved,"  she  cried,  breathlessly, 
"by  the  honorable  laws  of  our  land.  The  Spider  is 
now  an  outcast.  Ah ! " — her  voice  rose  shrilly  on  the 
verge  of  hysteria — "it  is  said — it  is  known — proved 
by  those  who  know — that  now — now  she  is  an  in 
mate  of  the  Yoshiwara.  She — " 

He  had  gripped  her  so  savagely  by  the  shoulder 
that  she  cried  aloud  in  pain.  At  her  cry  he  threw 
her  from  him  almost  as  if  she  had  been  some  unclean 
thing.  She  fell  upon  her  knees,  and  upon  them 
crept  toward  him,  stretching  out  her  hands  and 
beating  them  futilely  together. 

"My  Lord  Gonji!  My  husband!  I  am  your 
honorable  wife  before  all  the  eight  million  gods  of 
the  heavens  and  the  seas.  It  is  impossible  to  for 
sake  me.  I  will  not  permit  it.  I  will  cling  to  your 
skirts  and  proclaim  my  rights — ah,  yes,  to  the  very 
doors  of  Hades,  if  need  be!" 

He  seemed  not  even  to  hear  her.  With  his  face 
thrust  out  like  one  who  dreams,  he  was  recalling 
a  vision.  It  was  the  face  of  Moonlight  as  he  had 
seen  it  last  with  that  exalted,  spiritual  expression 
of  self-sacrifice  and  adoration  upon  it.  She  an  in 
mate  of  the  cursed  Yoshiwara!  The  thought  was 
grotesque,  so  horrible  that  a  short  laugh  came  to 
his  lips. 

He  strode  by  the  agonized  woman  on  the  floor 

90 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

without  a  further  word,  and  sharply  snapped  the 
folding  doors  between  them.  This  was  their  farewell. 

As  he  passed  down  the  street,  on  his  way  to  join 
his  regiment,  he  was  halted  by  the  throngs  pressing 
on  all  sides.  The  whole  country  seemed  to  be 
abroad  in  the  streets.  The  people  marched  about 
carrying  banners,  and  even  the  little  children 
seemed  to  have  caught  the  spirit  of  Yamato  Damashii 
(the  Soul  of  Japan),  and  stammered  their  little 
banzais  in  chorus.  It  was  an  inspiring  sight,  and 
he  wandered  about  for  some  time,  with  no  particular 
purpose,  unconscious  where  he  was,  in  what  direction 
his  feet  carried  him,  following  the  throngs  as  they 
pushed  along  through  the  streets. 

Suddenly  he  came  to  where  the  lights  were 
brighter;  and  the  sounds  of  revelry  seemed  to 
shriek  at  the  very  gates.  Gonji  paused,  concen 
trating  his  attention  for  the  first  time  upon  the  place. 

All  at  once  it  dawned  upon  him  that  he  was 
before  the  gates  of  the  Yoshiwara!  The  words  of 
Ohano  seemed  to  ring  in  his  ears.  As  if  to  shut  out 
their  loud  outcry,  he  covered  his  ears  and  sped  like  a 
madman  down  the  street.  He  swore  to  his  very  soul 
that  it  was  an  accursed  lie  Ohano  had  uttered,  and  yet — 

He  stopped  suddenly  and  threw  a  furtive,  ag 
onized  glance  toward  the  infernal  "city."  Then 
his  head  drooped  down  upon  his  breast  and  he  stag 
gered  toward  the  barracks  like  one  who  has  been 
wounded  mortally. 


CHAPTER  XV 

|ET  us  go  outside.  See,  many  of  the 
citizens  stand  on  the  roofs  of  the  cars. 
We  can  see  nothing  from  here." 

Thus  coaxed  Ohano.  With  Gonji's 
parents  she  was  traveling,  their  train 
running  parallel  with  another  crowded  with  the  de 
parting  troops.  The  trains  moved  slowly,  for  all 
the  country  had  come  to  see  the  departing  ones  and 
to  acclaim  them  with  loud  banzais. 

Lady  Saito's  hard  features  were  unrecognizable 
because  of  their  swollen  and  agonized  appearance. 
She  allowed  the  younger  woman  to  support  her 
and  finally  draw  her  outside.  The  people  made  way 
respectfully  for  them.  Every  one  knew  their  his 
tory — knew,  moreover,  of  the  sacrifice  they  were 
making  in  giving  up  the  only  son,  and  of  how 
generously  they  had  contributed  to  the  war  fund. 
Here  were  the  brave,  patriotic  father  and  mother! 
Here  the  young  and  beautiful  wife. 

Ohano 's  round  cheeks  were  pink  with  excitement. 
She  had  forgotten,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  her 
last  interview  with  her  husband.  The  excitement 
of  the  situation,  the  murmured  admiration  and  re- 

92 


THE    HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

spect  of  those  about  her,  upheld  her.  There  was 
almost  an  element  of  enjoyment  mingled  with  her 
excitement,  as  her  eyes  wandered  eagerly  over  the 
crowds. 

The  train  bearing  the  troops  moved  a  bit  swifter 
along  its  course,  and  the  fourth  car  came  opposite 
to  that  on  the  platform  of  which  stood  the  Saito 
family. 

"There  he  is!  There  he  is!"  cried  Ohano,  ex 
citedly;  and  she  leaned  far  out,  restrained  by  the 
solicitous  hand  of  her  father-in-law,  and,  waving 
her  silk  handkerchief,  called  to  her  husband  by 
name: 

' '  Gonji !    Gonji !    My  Lord  Gon ji ! ' ' 

"My  son!"  moaned  the  aged  woman,  unable 
longer  to  restrain  her  feelings. 

Stoically,  and  with  no  sign  of  the  ache  with 
in  her,  she  had  parted  from  her  son.  Japanese 
women  send  their  men  on  perilous  journeys  with 
smiles  upon  their  lips,  even  while  their  hearts  are 
breaking;  but  now,  as  the  mother  saw  the  train 
carrying  away  the  only  child  the  gods  had  given 
her,  the  tension  broke.  She  clung  moaning  to  her 
husband  and  her  daughter-in-law. 

For  the  first  time,  as  she  saw  the  thin  profile  of 
the  young  man  in  the  window  of  the  car  opposite, 
she  was  seized  with  an  overwhelming  sense  of 
remorse.  What  happiness  had  she  ever  helped  to 
bring  into  the  life  of  her  boy?  She  had  put  him 

93 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

from  her  after  the  manner  of  a  Spartan  woman 
while  he  was  yet  in  tender  years.  She  had  done 
this  fiercely,  heroically  as  she  believed,  fearing  that 
otherwise  she  might  not  sufficiently  do  her  duty 
to  both  him  and  the  ancestors.  But  now — now !  He 
was  going  from  her  forever!  She  had  given  him 
to  the  Emperor!  Soon  her  terrible  prayer  that  he 
might  give  his  young  life  in  service  for  his  Emperor 
and  country  might  indeed  be  answered. 

She  felt  very  old,  very  feeble,  and  utterly  for 
saken  and  forlorn.  Even  as  she  looked  through 
tear-blinded  eyes  at  her  son  there  came  vividly 
before  her  memory  the  pale  and  tragic  face  of  the 
young  and  outcast  wife  he  had  loved  so  passion 
ately.  She  burst  into  a  loud  cry,  stretching  out  her 
arms  frantically: 

"Oh,  my  son!    Oh,  my  son!" 

In  the  opposite  train  Gonji  raised  his  head,  saw 
his  people,  but,  possibly  because  of  the  crowds  and 
the  intervening  glass  pane,  did  not  notice  their  in 
tense  anguish.  He  smiled,  bowed,  and  made  a  slight 
motion  of  salute  with  his  hand. 

His  mother  was  silenced,  and  remained  staring 
at  him  like  one  turned  to  stone.  Ohano's  face  fell, 
and  she  stood  like  a  pouting  child  unjustly  punished. 
He  had  not  even  risen  in  his  seat  nor  so  much  as 
opened  the  window. 

Both  trains  had  now  come  to  a  standstill  at  the 
little  suburban  station.  Crowds  of  people  swarmed 

94 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

over  the  platform,  some  even  climbing  the  steps  of 
the  troop- train  and  penetrating  into  the  cars  them 
selves.  A  band  began  to  beat  out  the  monotonous 
droning  music  of  the  national  hymn.  Windows 
were  raised,  caps  lifted,  and  cheering  ensued  for  a 
time.  But  still  the  Lord  Gonji  remained  unmoved, 
not  rousing  from  the  moody  reverie  into  which  he 
seemed  plunged,  and  casting  not  even  a  glance  in 
the  direction  of  the  party  that  watched  him  so 
eagerly  from  across  the  way:  so  oblivious  and  in 
different  to  his  surroundings  did  he  seem. 

Suddenly  an  officer  in  the  seat  behind  him  leaned 
over  and  spoke  to  him.  His  family  saw  Gonji  start 
as  if  he  had  been  struck.  Turning  about  quickly 
in  his  seat,  he  tore  at  the  fastenings  of  the  window. 
Now  he  leaned  far  out,  his  ears  strained,  his  eyes 
searching  above  the  vast  crowds  without. 

They  watched  him  curiously,  following  his  gaze. 
His  lips  moved;  he  seemed  about  to  leap  from  the 
window,  but  was  held  back  by  the  restraining  hand 
of  his  brother-officer,  and  the  train  began  to  move 
rapidly. 

A  hush  had  fallen  not  alone  upon  the  family  of 
the  Saito,  but  on  the  throngs  pressing  on  all  sides. 
As  if  compelled,  their  united  gaze  followed  that  of 
the  seemingly  entranced  Gonji. 

Upon  a  little  hillock  a  short  space  removed  from 
the  station,  one  lone  figure  stood  out,  silhouetted 
against  the  clear  blue  sky.  Her  kimono  was  of  a 

95 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

vermilion  color,  embroidered  with  dragons  of  gold. 
Gold,  too,  was  her  obi,  and  in  the  bright  sunlight 
her  scarlet  fan  and  the  poppies  in  her  hair  flashed 
like  sparks  of  fire. 

To  the  crowds  in  the  valley  below,  surging  like 
a  swarm  of  sheep  all  along  the  railway-tracks, 
following  the  troop-trains,  their  hoarse  cheers  ming 
ling  with  that  of  the  beating  drums  and  the  chanting 
of  the  national  hymn,  she  seemed  a  symbol  of 
triumph,  an  exquisite  omen  of  victory  to  come! 

Some  one  shouted  her  name  aloud: 

"The  glorious  Spider  of  the  House  of  Slender 
Pines!" 

"Nay,"  cried  another,  "it  is  the  vision  of  the 
Sun  Lady  herself!" 

The  soldiers,  too,  saw  her,  and  began  to  cheer, 
their  wild  banzais  ringing  out  triumphantly  and 
reaching  the  geisha  on  the  hill. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

N  a  day  in  the  season  of  greatest  heat, 
a  few  months  after  the  going  of  Lord 
Saito  Gonji  to  the  front,  there  staggered 
up  the  tortuous  and  winding  pathway, 
which  climbed  the  mountain  -  side  to 
where  the  House  of  Slender  Pines  rested  as  on  a  cliff,  a 
curious  figure.  She  was  garbed  in  the  conventional 
dress  of  the  geisha,  and  the  burning  sun,  beating 
down  upon  the  little  figure,  showed  the  gold  of  her 
wide  obi  and  the  glittering  vermilion  of  her  kimono. 
Something  bound  to  the  woman's  neck  and  back 
seemed  to  crush  her  almost  double  beneath  its 
weight,  and  she  clung  weakly  to  the  stumps  of  tree 
and  bush  as  she  made  her  way  along. 

It  seemed  almost,  to  the  geishas  sitting  in  the 
cool  shade  of  the  pavilion,  that  she  dragged  herself 
along  on  her  hands  and  knees. 

One  ceased  strumming  upon  the  samisen,  and 
a  dancer,  idly  illustrating  a  few  new  gestures  to 
the  admiring  apprentices,  stopped  in  the  middle  of 
a  movement. 

Omi  suddenly  screeched  and  caught  at  the  sleeve 
of  the  dancer.  No  one  moved  or  spoke.  They  stood 

97 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

dumfounded,  staring  with  unbelieving  eyes  at  the 
Spider,  as  she  crept  up  the  last  height  and  dropped 
in  silent  exhaustion  in  their  midst.  There,  with  the 
glowing  sun  beating  mercilessly  down  upon  her, 
entangled  in  her  glimmering  gown,  she  lay  like  a 
great  dead  butterfly. 

There  was  a  stir  among  the  geishas.  Eyes  met 
eyes  in  meaning,  shocked  glances;  but  still,  from 
custom,  they  were  voiceless. 

Suddenly  the  little  Omi  began  to  run  about  like 
one  bereft  of  her  senses.  One  moment  she  knelt 
by  her  former  mistress;  the  next  she  sought  to 
awaken  the  chaperon,  shaking  and  pounding  that 
enormously  stout  and  somnolent  lady.  Several 
maids  now  joined  her,  and  they  ran  about  in  panic- 
stricken  circles,  uncertain  what  to  do.  Matsuda 
was  absent.  The  poor,  mindless  Okusama  was 
indoors,  playing  and  talking  with  her  countless  dolls, 
quite  oblivious  of  all  about  her.  Should  they  go  to 
her?  Would  she  understand? 

Omi  finally  darted  into  the  house,  and,  dragging 
the  Okusama  from  her  dolls,  drew  her  out  into  the 
sunlight.  For  a  moment  the  demented  creature 
stared  with  a  puzzled,  troubled  look  at  the  form 
upon  the  ground.  Then  she  began  to  utter  strange 
little  inarticulate  cries  and  threw  herself  upon  the 
body  of  the  Spider. 

She  seemed  suddenly  to  regain  all  of  her  lost 
senses.  She  felt  the  geisha's  hands,  listened  to 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

her  heart,  screamed  for  water,  and  tore  at  the 
object  upon  the  Spider's  back,  drawing  it  warmly 
to  her  own  bosom. 

One  maiden  brought  water,  another  a  parasol, 
another  a  fan,  while  Omi  supported  Moonlight's 
head  upon  her  lap.  One  vied  with  the  other  in 
performing  some  service  for  the  one  they  all  had 
loved. 

Presently  the  heavy  eyes  of  the  Spider  opened, 
and,  dazedly,  she  appeared  to  recognize  the  faces 
of  those  about  her.  A  faint  smile  crept  to  her 
white  lips.  But  the  smile  quickly  faded,  and  a 
piteous  look  of  commingled  fear  and  pain  stole 
over  her  wan  little  face.  She  put  back  her  hands 
to  her  neck  and  started  up,  moaning.  Loving  arms 
were  about  her.  They  reassured  her  that  all  about 
her  were  friends,  and  showed  her  her  baby,  where, 
safe  and  sweet,  it  rested  in  the  bosom  of  the  Okusama. 
Then  for  a  long  time  she  lay  with  her  eyes  closed,  a 
look  of  peace,  such  as  comes  after  a  long,  exhausting 
race,  upon  her  face. 

Later,  when,  refreshed  and  stronger,  she  rested 
among  the  geishas  in  the  pavilion,  she  weakly  and 
somewhat  incoherently  told  them  the  story  of  her 
wanderings. 

At  first  she  had  found  employment  under  another 
name  in  a  tea-house  of  the  city  of  Tokio;  but  it 
was  not  in  the  capacity  of  geisha,  for  she  knew 
the  agents  of  her  husband  sought  among  all  the 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

houses  of  the  two  cities  for  a  geisha  answering  her 
description.  Moreover,  she  had  not  the  heart  nor 
the  strength  to  follow  her  old  employment.  So  she 
had  worked  in  the  humble  capacity  of  seamstress 
to  a  geisha-house  in  Tokio,  near  by  the  very  barracks 
where  her  husband  daily  went.  Every  day  she  had 
seen  him,  unseen  by  him.  She  had  even  heard  his 
inquiries  of  the  master  of  the  house  for  one  an 
swering  her  description.  But  no  one  had  thought 
of  the  pale  and  shrinking  little  sewing  woman,  who 
so  humbly  served  the  geishas,  as  the  famous  one 
they  sought. 

Then  the  war  had  caused  business  stagnation 
everywhere  in  Tokio,  and  the  first  to  suffer  were 
the  geishas.  Patrons  now  were  few,  confined  mostly 
to  members  of  the  departing  regiments. 

Moonlight's  strength  at  this  time  had  begun  to 
fail  her.  Her  work  was  unsatisfactory.  She  was 
dismissed.  Now,  at  this  time,  when  it  was  too  late 
to  please  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji  and  all  his  august 
ancestors,  she  had  made  the  astonishing  discoveiy, 
which  she  had  not  known  when  with  him:  that  she 
was  to  become  a  mother ! 

Unable,  even  had  she  so  desired,  to  return  to  the 
house  of  the  Saitos,  scorning  to  accept  even  the 
smallest  help  from  the  family  which  had  divorced 
her,  turned  away  from  every  place  where  she  sought 
employment  because  of  her  condition,  she  had  been 
reduced  to  the  direst  necessity.  Indeed  she,  the  once 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

celebrated  Spider,  the  wife  of  the  noble  Lord  Saito 
Gonji,  had  become  a  miserable  mendicant,  hovering 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  temples  and  the  tea-houses, 
seeking,  in  the  garb  of  her  late  calling,  now  worn 
and  tattered,  as  they  saw,  for  pity  and  charity. 
After  long  and  tortuous  wanderings,  she  had  at 
last  managed  to  return  to  Kioto.  She  wandered 
out  into  the  hills  in  search  of  the  House  of  Slender 
Pines. 

In  a  secluded  and  quiet  little  corner  of  a  seemingly 
deserted  and  unexplored  hill  she  had  found  at  last 
a  refuge  in  a  diminutive  temple,  where  a  lonely 
priestess  expiated  the  sins  of  her  youth  by  a  life 
of  absolute  solitude  and  piety.  Here  Moonlight's 
child  was  born.  Here  she  might  still  have  been, 
but  the  aged  nun  had  finished  her  last  penance 
and  had  gone  to  join  the  ones  the  gods  loved  in 
Nirvana.  The  geisha  had  set  out  again,  in  search 
of  her  former  home,  and  now  she  bore  her  baby 
on  her  back.  Without  funds  to  pay  for  a  jinrikisha, 
she  had  traveled  entirely  on  foot.  The  journey 
had  been  long,  the  sun  never  so  hot,  but,  ah!  the 
gods  had  guided  her  feet  unerringly,  and  here  at 
last  she  was  in  their  midst ! 

She  looked  at  the  Okusama,  whispering  to  the 
little  head  against  her  lips;  at  Omi,  holding  her 
hands  in  a  strangling  grasp  and  making  violent 
contortions  of  her  face  in  an  effort  to  keep  back 
the  tears;  at  the  geishas  and  maidens,  with  their 

8  ioi 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS    MOONLIGHT 

pretty  faces  running  over  with  tears.  Then  she 
sighed  and  smiled. 

The  Okusama  seemed  to  remember  something 
of  a  sudden.  She  started  upon  her  knees,  clapping 
her  hands  violently. 

"Hurry,  maidens!"  she  cried,  shrilly.  "The 
most  honorable  Spider  requires  new  apparel!  Wait 
upon  her  quickly  and  excellently!" 

Omi  whirled  around  in  a  dizzy  circle,  and  she 
danced  every  step  of  the  way  to  the  house.  Inside 
they  heard  her  singing,  and  a  moment  later  berating 
and  scolding  the  maid  who  was  to  wait  upon  her 
mistress. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

IETURNING  from  a  fruitless  canvass 
for  patrons  for  his  house,  Matsuda  was 
in  an  evil  mood.  The  times  were  bitter. 
Upon  every  tongue  was  heard  but  the 
one  topic — the  war!  The  gayest  and 
most  spendthrift  of  youths  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
geisha-keeper's  descriptions  of  the  exceptional  beauty 
and  talents  of  his  maidens.  The  clash  of  drum  and 
arms  had  a  more  alluring  call  to  the  men  of  Japan 
than  the  most  charming  song  ever  sung  by  geisha; 
and  the  glittering  sun-flag,  tossing  aloft  from  every 
roof  and  tower,  was  more  enchanting  to  their  sight 
than  the  brightest  pair  of  eyes  or  reddest  lips  of 
which  the  master  of  the  geishas  told. 

Not  a  patron  in  all  the  city  of  Kioto  for  the 
once  famous  House  of  Slender  Pines!  Super- 
stitiously  its  master  feared  his  place  was  doomed. 
At  the  solicitation  of  his  wife,  he  had  kept  the 
girls  despite  the  hard  times;  now  he  felt  he  could 
no  longer  humor  even  the  Okusama.  Matsuda 
knew  the  fate  likely  to  befall  the  geishas,  were  they 
to  be  turned  out  of  employment  at  this  time.  Unable 
to  obtain  positions  through  the  customary  channels 

103 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

of  the  geisha-houses,  they  had  but  one  last  re 
source — the  Yoshiwara!  Even  in  war- times  the 
"hell  city,"  as  it  was  aptly  named,  thrived.  Against 
this  fate  the  Okusama  had  so  far  shielded  the 
geishas  of  the  House  of  Slender  Pines,  and  even' 
now,  as  he  thought  of  her,  Matsuda  debated  how 
he  should  explain  the  going  of  even  the  humblest 
apprentice. 

As  his  jinrikisha  wound  in  and  out  up  the  twisting 
pathway,  he  noted  through  the  shadowing  trees 
that  the  tea-house  was  brilliantly  lighted,  an  expense 
lately  considerably  cut  down  by  his  express  orders. 
The  frown  upon  his  brow  grew  darker,  and  his 
little  cruel  eyes  were  like  those  of  a  wild  boar. 

As  he  turned  into  the  gates  he  saw  that  even 
the  pathway  was  strung  with  lighted  lanterns,  and 
from  the  house  itself  came  the  resounding  beat  of 
the  triumphant  little  koto,  mingled  with  the  softly 
humming  voices  of  the  geishas. 

The  illuminated  tea-house,  the  music,  the  air  of 
festivity  and  affluence  puzzled  him.  It  was  against 
his  orders,  but,  perchance,  in  his  absence,  some 
lofty  ones  had  condescended  to  patronize  his  place! 

As  he  stepped  from  his  carriage,  the  laughing 
little  Omi  came  running  down  to  the  gate  to  meet 
him,  a  bowl  of  water  splashing  in  her  hands.  So 
eager  she  seemed  to  welcome  the  master,  she  barely 
waited  for  him  to  kick  aside  his  clogs  ere  she  dashed 
the  refreshing  water  upon  his  heated  feet. 

104 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS    MOONLIGHT 

The  geishas  prostrated  themselves  as  he  passed 
among  them.  Wherever  he  looked  he  saw  the  lights 
and  the  evidences  of  a  recent  feast;  but  nowhere 
did  the  master  of  the  geishas  see  a  single  guest. 

His  face  had  become  pastily  white,  and  his  little 
eyes  glittered  as  they  turned  from  side  to  side.  So 
far  he  spoke  no  word  to  the  offending  geishas. 
Looking  upward,  he  noted  the  illuminated  second 
story,  while  the  lighted  takahiras  were  visible 
against  the  massed  flowers  of  the  balconies  and  the 
tingling  wind-bells.  But  still,  nowhere  a  guest! 
Mystified,  his  rage  deepening,  he  turned  suddenly 
with  a  roar  toward  the  geishas. 

So  this  was  the  way  his  servants  disported  them 
selves  in  his  absence!  Feasting  and  celebrating! 
So  be  it.  They  were  shortly  to  learn  that  their 
master  carried  with  him  a  punishment  even  more 
dreadful  than  the  whip.  "The  Yoshiwara!"  he 
shouted,  raising  his  clenched  fists  above  his  head. 
That  was  the  fate  reserved  for  the  faithless  cattle 
he  had  trusted. 

No  one  stirred.  No  one  spoke.  The  geishas, 
still  prostrated,  kept  their  humble  heads  on  the 
ground.  Yet  something  in  their  unshrinking  atti 
tude  made  him  see  that  for  some  reason  they  did 
not  realize  his  words.  Like  an  animal  in  pain,  he 
bounced  into  their  midst,  his  arm  upraised  to 
strike,  his  foot  to  kick. 

Some  one  caught  at  his  sleeve  and  held  to  it  in- 
105 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

sistently.  He  turned  and  encountered  the  white, 
wild  face  of  his  wife.  Her  lips  moved  voicelessly, 
but  she  clung  with  tenacity  to  his  sleeve. 

For  the  first  time  he  struck  the  Okusama — a 
cruel,  savage  blow  that  sent  her  staggering  back 
from  him.  She  sprang  back  to  his  side,  dumbly 
caught  again  at  his  sleeve  with  one  hand,  and 
pointed  steadily  upward  with  the  other. 

Matsuda  looked  and  began  to  shake.  There  on 
the  widest  balcony  of  the  House  of  Slender  Pines, 
swaying  and  tossing  like  a  moth  in  the  wind,  the 
Spider  spun  her  web. 

He  wiped  his  eyes  as  if  to  make  sure  he  did  not 
see  a  vision ;  but  still  the  alluring,  smiling  face  of  the 
one  who  had  brought  him  fortune  glanced  at  him 
in  the  torchlight. 

"The  Spider!"  he  cried  hoarsely.    "She  is  back!" 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


F  course,  figured  Matsuda  to  himself, 
even  the  addition  of  one  so  famous  as 
the  Spider  could  not  at  once  bring  for 
tune  to  the  House  of  Slender  Pines  at 
war-time.  Then,  too,  there  was  the 
honorable  child  to  sustain. 

Not  for  a  moment,  Matsuda  told  himself,  did  he 
begrudge  or  regret  the  celebrations  in  the  Spider's 
honor  rightly  insisted  upon  by  his  wife.  Undoubt 
edly  she  was  an  honorable  guest.  Still,  a  poor  man, 
the  keeper  of  a  half-score  of  geishas,  must  make 
proper  provision  for  their  future  sustenance  and 
his  own  old  age.  If  the  Spider  were,  in  fact,  to  prove 
her  old  title  of  fortune-bringer  to  the  geisha-house, 
it  was  necessary  that  she  begin  at  once. 

So,  while  the  Okusama  and  the  geishas  showered 
the  Spider  with  favors  and  waited  upon  her  slightest 
wish,  while  the  honorable  descendant  of  the  illus 
trious  Saito  blood  joyously  passed  from  hand  to 
hand,  while  the  Okusama  cast  aside  her  dolls  and 
hovered  like  a  brooding  mother  over  Moonlight 
and  her  baby,  Matsuda  held  his  head  within  his 
own  chamber  and  cunningly  planned  a  scheme 

107 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

whereby  the  Spider's  presence  in  his  house  might 
be  turned  to  immediate  profit. 

By  his  contract  with  the  Saito  family,  the  Spider 
was  released  from  bondage.  Hence  she  was  not 
entirely  bound  to  serve  him.  She  had  already  ex 
cited  his  exasperation  by  her  persistent  refusal 
to  dance  for  prospective  customers  the  dance  by 
which  she  had  won  fame.  She  desired  to  assume 
another  pseudonym,  and  for  a  month  at  least  asked 
that  she  might  rest  and  thus  regain  her  strength. 

A  month!  inwardly  had  snorted  Matsuda.  Why, 
even  the  last  batch  of  troops  would  be  at  the  front 
by  then.  Japan  would  be  emptied  completely  of 
her  men.  Now  was  the  time,  if  ever,  to  draw 
patrons  to  the  house,  since  the  departing  soldiers 
celebrated  their  going  at  the  most  popular  geisha- 
houses.  Only  the  fact  that  the  House  of  Slender 
Pines  was  some  distance  away  among  the  hills  kept 
the  soldiers  from  patronizing  it  in  preference  to 
those  in  the  city  of  Kioto.  But,  could  Matsuda 
venture  down  below,  proclaiming  the  fact  of  the 
return  of  the  Spider,  ah,  then  indeed  he  might 
be  assured  of  customers  for  a  time  at  least! 

No  amount  of  pleading  or  reasoning,  however, 
moved  the  Spider.  With  the  pitying,  solicitous, 
fond  arms  of  the  Okusama  about  her,  she  languidly 
proclaimed  herself  still  ill,  as  indeed  she  looked  and 
was. 

So  Matsuda  chewed  on  his  nails  and  thought  and 

1 08 


THE    HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

thought.  He  thought  of  the  agents  of  the  young 
Lord  Saito  Gonji,  who  had  come  to  see  him  at  the 
time  Gonji 's  regiment  was  stationed  in  Tokio.  He 
thought  of  the  exorbitant  reward  temptingly  ten 
dered  him  for  any  information  of  the  Spider.  How 
he  had  cursed  his  inability  to  find  the  girl  at  that 
time.  But  the  young  Lord  Gonji  was  gone — gone 
forever,  undoubtedly.  Who  was  there  in  all  this 
haughty  family,  which  had  disdainfully  and  con 
temptuously  cast  out  from  its  doors  the  miserable 
geisha,  who  could  now  possibly  be  interested  in 
her  lot?  Nevertheless,  the  master  of  the  geisha- 
house  pondered  the  matter,  and  as  he  did  so  there 
came  up  suddenly  before  his  mind's  eye  the  round 
rosy  face  of  the  rightful  heir  of  all  the  Saito  an 
cestors.  His  heart  began  to  thump  within  him 
with  a  strange  excitement.  Suddenly  he  set  out 
upon  a  journey. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

HE  ancestral  home  of  the  Saitos  was 
situated  in  the  most  aristocratic  of  the 
suburbs  of  Kioto.  Walled  in  on  all 
sides  by  the  evergreen  hills  and  moun 
tains  and  sharing  in  eminence  and 
beauty  the  most  famous  of  the  temples,  the  shiro 
should  have  proved  an  ideal  retreat  for  the  saddened 
female  relatives  of  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji. 

Here,  with  their  household  reduced  to  a  single 
man  and  maid,  and  themselves  performing  menial 
tasks  the  more  to  chasten  their  spirits,  as  had 
become  the  custom  during  this  period  among  the 
nobility,  the  mother  and  the  wife  of  Saito  Gonji 
lived  silently  together.  For  even  the  father  of 
Gonji  had  heard  the  stern  voice  of  Hachiman,  the 
god  of  war,  and  had  taken  up  arms  dutifully  in  his 
Emperor's  defense. 

No  longer  was  the  harsh,  sarcastic  tongue  of  the 
Lady  Saito  Ichigo  heard  in  insistent  berating  of 
maid  and  daughter-in-law;  nor  did  the  loud,  mirth 
less  laughter  of  Ohano  ring  out.  Mute,  their  white 
faces  marked  with  the  shadow  of  a  fear  that  fairly 

no 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

ate  at  their  hearts'   core,   the  two  Saito  women 
plodded  along  daily  together. 

For  a  time,  after  the  going  of  Gonji,  the  older 
woman  had  waited  upon  the  younger;  but  as  the 
days  and  weeks  passed  her  solicitude  for  the  health 
of  the  young  wife  slowly  diminished,  and  in  its 
place  came  a  scorching  anxiety  to  torture  the  now 
aging  woman. 

Not  in  the  sneering  tone  she  had  turned  upon 
the  hapless  Moonlight,  but  with  the  deepest  earnest 
ness,  she  now  besought  her  daughter-in-law  daily 
to  lavish  costly  offerings  at  the  shrines,  and  even 
to  drink  of  the  Kiyomidzu  springs!  As  became  a 
dutiful  daughter,  the  once  smiling,  taunting  Oha- 
no  joined  that  same  melancholy  group  where  once 
the  unhappy  Moonlight  had  been  a  familiar  fig 
ure. 

Thus  the  tragic  months  passed  away.  Few  if  any 
words  now  passed  between  the  Saito  women.  A 
wall  seemed  to  have  arisen  between  them.  Where 
previously  the  older  woman  had  felt  for  Ohano  an 
affection  almost  equivalent  to  that  of  a  mother,  she 
now  turned  wearily  from  the  girl's  timid  effort  to 
appease  her.  Unlike,  however,  her  treatment  of  the 
Spider,  she  at  least  spared  the  young  wife  the 
harsh,  nagging,  condemnatory  words  of  reproach 
and  recrimination. 

Every  morning  the  selfsame  question  was  asked 
and  answered: 

in 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"You  were  at  Kiyomidzu  yesterday,  my  daugh 
ter?" 

"He",  honorable  mother." 

"And—?" 

"The  gods  are  obdurate,  alas!" 

Lady  Saito  would  mechanically  knock  out  the 
ash  from  her  pipe  and  refill  it  with  her  trembling 
fingers.  Then,  shaking  her  head,  she  would  mutter : 

"From  the  decree  of  heaven  there  is  no  escape!" 


CHAPTER  XX 

VEN  a  calamity,  left  alone,  may  turn 
into  a  fortune,"  quoted  Lady  Saito 
Ichigo,  devoutly,  as  with  her  hand 
trembling  with  excitement  she  filled 
her  pipe. 

Ohano  listlessly  extended  the  taper  to  her  mother- 
in-law,  and  the  latter  took  several  puffs  and  inhaled 
with  intense  satisfaction. 

There  was  something  peculiarly  still  and  strange 
about  the  attitude  of  Ohano.  Her  eyes  seemed 
almost  closed,  her  lips  were  a  single  colorless  line, 
and  there  was  not  a  vestige  of  color  in  her  face. 
Almost  she  seemed  like  some  automaton  that  was 
unable  to  move  save  when  touched.  One  of  Ohano 's 
arms  was  shorter  than  the  other,  and  this  had 
always  been  a  sensitive  matter  to  her,  so  that  gen 
erally  she  had  carried  it  hidden  in  her  sleeve.  Now 
she  nursed  it  mechanically,  almost  as  if  it  pained, 
and  twice  she  extended  the  lame  arm  for  the  taper. 
Whatever  there  was  about  the  girl's  expression  or 
attitude,  it  aroused  the  irritation  of  the  older  woman, 
and  she  said  sharply: 

"3 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"You  perceive  the  wisdom  of  the  proverb,  my 
girl,  do  you  not?" 

Ohano  said  slowly,  as  though  the  words  came 
from  her  with  an  effort: 

"It  is  not  apropos  to  our  case  at  all.  I  do  not 
at  all  see  either  the  calamity  or  the  fortune,  for  that 
matter." 

Her  mother-in-law  took  her  pipe  from  her  mouth 
and  stared  at  her  amazedly  a  moment.  Then  she 
enumerated  events  upon  her  fingers. 

"Calamity,"  she  said,  "when  my  son  met  the 
Spider  woman.  Almost  it  seemed  as  if  the  gods 
had  forsaken  their  favorites.  What  a  fate  for  the 
illustrious  ancestors — the  last  of  the  race  married 
to  a  geisha!" 

Ohano  shrugged  her  shoulders,  then  averted  her 
face.  She  had  bitten  her  lips  so  that  now  they 
seemed  to  be  blistered,  and  pushed  out,  thick  and 
swollen. 

"Well,"  resumed  her  mother,  triumphantly,  "you 
perceive  the  workings  of  the  gods  undoubtedly  in 
what  followed.  The  war  came  like  a  veritable 
miracle.  Think;  had  it  come  but  a  few — one  or 
two — months  later  even,  the  Spider  would  still 
have  been  in  our  house,  and,  what  is  more,  Ohano, 
elevated!  Oh,  there  would  have  been  no  enduring 
the  dancer.  It  is  said" — and  she  lowered  her  voice 
confidently — "that  the  arrogance  and  pride  of  women 
of  her  class  is  an  intolerable  thing  when  once  aroused. 

114 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

An  excellent  actress  was  this  Spider.  Let  us  admit 
it.  She  was  prepared  to — wait!  She  entreated  pa 
tience  for  only  a  few  months  longer.  But,  as  I  have 
said,  the  gods  intervened.  The  war  arose!  It  was 
found  imperative  to  return  her  at  once!  Hoom! 
That  is  right.  You  may  well  smile,  my  girl,  since 
your  turn  had  come!" 

Ohano's  mask-like  countenance  had  broken  into  a 
rigid  smile  of  reminiscence.  She  recalled  the  days 
of  her  supreme  triumph — the  casting  out  of  the  one 
she  hated,  her  own  elevation  as  the  wife  of  the 
Lord  Saito  Gonji.  A  faint  color  stole  into  her  cheeks. 

"I'll  confess,"  continued  the  mother-in-law,  humor 
ously,  "that  you  proved  a  less  docile  and  filial 
daughter."  She  chuckled  reminiscently.  "It  is 
impossible  to  forget  the  humility  of  the  Spider!" 
She  looked  at  Ohano  fondly.  "I  will  tell  you,  my 
girl,  I  always  desired  you  for  my  daughter.  Your 
mother  and  I  were  cousins,  and  do  you  know — I 
will  tell  you,  now  that  my  lord  is  honorably  absent — 
that  it  was  originally  planned  that  your  father  and 
I  should  marry."  She  scowled  and  blinked  her 
eyes,  sighing  heavily.  ' '  Well,  schemes  fall  through ! ' ' 

For  a  time  she  was  silent,  drowsily  pulling  at  her 
pipe,  which  Ohano  mechanically  filled  and  refilled. 

Presently  Lady  Saito  laid  her  pipe  down  on  the 
hibachi  and  resumed  as  if  she  had  not  stopped. 

"So  much  for  the  calamity — the  intervention  of 
the  gods  that  followed.  Now  look  you,  my  girl. 

"5 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

All  the  expensive  offerings  heaped  at  the  shrines 
have  been  in  vain.  It  is  my  opinion  that  if  you 
supplicated  the  gods  till  doomsday  and  drank  of 
the  last  drop  of  the  Kiyomidzu  waters,  you  would 
not  now  become  a  mother!  Superstitions  are  for 
the  ignorant.  These  are  enlightened  days,  when 
we  fight  and  beat — and  beat,  Ohano! — the  Western 
nations!  So,  now,  we  supplicate  the  gods  for  a  so 
lution  of  the  tragic  problem  facing  us — the  ex 
tinction  of  the  illustrious  race  of  Saito.  It  is  im 
possible  for  such  a  race  to  die!" 

Ohano  moved  uneasily.  She  had  picked  up  her 
embroidery  frame,  and  was  attempting  to  work, 
but  her  lips  were  moving  and  her  hands  trembled. 
Partly  to  hide  her  expression  from  her  mother-in- 
law,  she  bent  her  head  far  over  the  frame.  Lady 
Saito  began  to  laugh  quite  loudly. 

"Never — no,  not  within  the  entire  span  of  a 
lifetime — have  I  even  heard  of  such  favor  of  the 
gods!  Just  think,  Ohano,  without  the  pains  and 
labors  of  a  mother,  they  put  into  your  honorable 
arms  a  most  noble  descendant  of  the  august  ances 
tors.  Why,  you  should  extend  your  arms  in  perpet 
ual  thanks  to  all  the  gods.  Was  ever  such  mercy?" 

Said  Ohano,  with  her  face  still  hidden  by  the  frame : 

"It  is  said,  as  you  know,  that  it  is  easier  to  beget 
children  than  to  care  for  them!" 

Silence  a  moment.  Then  she  added  with  sudden 
passionate  vehemence: 

116 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"I  loathe  the  task  you  set  me,  mother-in-law. 
It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  carry  out  your  wishes." 

The  expression  on  the  older  woman's  face  should 
have  warned  her.  The  thin  lips  drew  back  in  a 
line  as  cruel  as  when  previously  she  had  looked  at 
the  hapless  Moonlight.  Her  voice  was,  if  possible, 
harsher. 

"It  is  better  to  nourish  a  dog  than  an  unfaithful 
child!"  she  cried,  got  to  her  feet,  and,  drawing  her 
skirts  about  her,  moved  away  in  stately  dudgeon. 

Ohano  leaped  up  also,  anxious  to  repair  the  injury 
she  had  done. 

"Mother!"  she  cried  out,  chokingly,  "put  yourself 
in  my  place.  Would  it  be  possible  for  you  to  cherish 
in  your  bosom  the  child  of  one  you  abhorred?" 

Slowly  the  outraged  and  angry  look  faded  from 
Lady  Saito's  face.  It  seemed  pinched  and  haggard. 
Her  voice  was  curiously  gentle: 

"That  is  possible,  Ohano.  I  have  given  you  an 
instance  in  my  own  honorable  house,  for  as  deeply 
as  I  hated  your  mother,  so  I  have  loved  you!" 

Ohano's  breath  came  in  gasps.  She  was  losing 
control  of  the  icy  nerve  that  had  hitherto  upheld 
her.  She  longed  to  fling  herself  upon  the  breast  of 
her  mother-in-law,  who,  despite  her  austere  bearing 
to  all,  had  always  been  kind  to  Ohano.  Even  as 
the  two  looked  into  each  other's  face  the  cry  of 
the  one  they  were  expecting  to  arrive  was  heard 
outside  the  screens.  Matsuda  had  kept  his  word! 

9  117 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS    MOONLIGHT 

Ohano  turned  white  with  despair.  She  clutched 
at  her  throat  as  though  she  were  choking  and  clung 
for  a  moment  to  the  screens,  her  anguished  face 
turned  back  toward  her  mother-in-law. 

"It  is  a  crime!"  she  gasped.  "The  Spider  will 
come  for  her  child!" 

"Let  her  come,"  darkly  rejoined  Lady  Saito. 
"Who  will  take  the  word  of  a  public  geisha  against 
that  of  the  honorable  ladies  of  the  house  of  Saito?" 

"The  man — he  himself — will  betray — it  is  not 
possible  to  close  the  tongue  of  one  of  the  choum 
class." 

"He  is  well  paid.  Moreover,  in  committing  the 
act  he  places  himself  under  the  ban  of  the  law. 
Will  he  betray  himself?" 

Lady  Saito  moved  with  a  curious  sense  of  hunger 
toward  the  doors,  ouside  which,  she  knew,  was  the 
son  of  her  son.  For  the  moment  at  least  she  had 
forgotten  Ohano;  but  when  she  found  the  girl 
barred  her  passage  she  thrust  her  ruthlessly  aside. 
Ohano  fell  upon  her  knees  by  the  shoji,  and,  with 
her  face  hidden  upon  the  floor,  she  began  to  pray 
to  the  gods. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

EANWHILE  in  the  House  of  Slender 
Pines  there  was  pandemonium.  The 
frightened,  panic-stricken  geishas  and 
maidens  fled  wildly  about,  seeking  in 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  place  for 
the  lost  child,  while  above  their  chattering  and  awe- 
stricken  whispers  rose  the  shrill,  hysterical  laughter 
of  the  Okusama. 

She  it  was  who  had  lost  the  child,  so  she  averred, 
for  it  was  upon  her  bosom  the  little  one  had  slept. 
Of  all  the  inmates  of  the  House  of  Slender  Pines, 
the  only  one  whose  voice  had  not  yet  been  heard 
was  the  geisha  Moonlight.  She  sat  in  an  upper 
chamber,  her  chin  pillowed  by  her  folded  hands, 
while  her  long,  dark  eyes  stared  straight  out  before 
her  blankly.  She  had  remained  in  this  motionless 
position  from  the  moment  they  had  told  her  of  the 
loss  of  her  child.  Her  little  apprentice,  Omi,  fearing 
that  her  mistress's  mind  was  affected,  hung  about 
her  in  tears,  alternately  offering  bodily  service  and 
seeking  to  tempt  the  silent  one  to  eat.  But  her 
offices  were  ignored  or  passively  endured.  The 
food  remained  untouched. 

119 


THE    HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Not  even  the  wild  crying  of  the  Okusama  stirred 
her,  though  she  could  plainly  hear  the  coaxing 
voices  of  the  maidens  as  they  sought  to  restrain 
her  from  flinging  herself  down  the  mountain-side. 

Later  in  the  day,  however,  when  the  Okusama, 
whose  wailing,  from  sheer  exhaustion,  had  turned  to 
long  gasping  sobs,  scratched  and  pulled  at  the  shoji 
of  the  Spider's  room,  Moonlight  stirred,  like  one 
coming  out  of  a  trance,  and  drew  her  hand  dazedly 
across  her  eyes  as  she  listened  to  the  heartrending 
words  of  the  Okusama. 

"Dearest  Moonlight!  The  honorable  little  one 
has  gone  upon  a  journey.  He  was  too  beautiful, 
too  exalted  for  a  geisha-house ;  the  gods  coveted  him. 
What  shall  I  do?  I  pray  you  speak  to  me.  What 
shall  the  Okusama  do?" 

With  the  aid  of  Omi,  the  geisha  slowly  arose, 
and,  walking  blindly  toward  the  screens,  opened 
them  at  last. 

At  her  sudden  appearance  the  maidens  supporting 
and  restraining  the  Okusama  drew  back,  and  even 
the  wild  wife  of  Matsuda  stopped  her  bitter  crying 
for  a  moment,  for  a  faint  smile  was  on  the  lips  of  the 
Spider,  and  she  held  out  both  her  hands  toward  them. 

"Silence  is  good,"  she  gently  admonished.  "It 
is  necessary  to  think.  Help  me  all,  I  pray  you!" 

They  followed  her  into  the  chamber  and  seated 
themselves  in  a  solemn  little  circle  about  her.  Pres 
ently  : 

120 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"Last  night  the  honorable  Lord  Taro  slept  safe 
upon  your  bosom,  Okusama?" 

The  poor  wife  of  the  geisha-keeper  clasped  her 
thin  hands  passionately  upon  her  breast;  but  her 
expression  was  less  wild,  her  words  intelligible. 

"Here,  my  Moonlight !  In  my  arms,  the  soft  head 
nestling  beneath  my  chin — so  warm — so — so — so-o — ' 

She  laid  her  hands  in  the  place  where  the  little 
head  had  rested.  Her  features  worked  as  if  she  must 
again  abandon  herself  to  anguished  weeping,  but 
the  look  on  Moonlight's  face  restrained  her  with 
almost  hypnotic  power. 

"It  was  after  the  going  of  the  master?"  she 
queried,  speaking  very  slowly  and  gently,  as  if 
thus  the  better  to  secure  intelligent  answers. 

"After  the  going,"  repeated  the  woman.     "For 
good-fortune  I  held  him  in  the  andon-light,  that 
his  honorable  face  might  be  the  last  my  lord  should 
see  as  he  departed." 
.    "He  has  gone  to  the — city?" 

"To  the  city.  He  contemplated  arousing  the  in 
terest  of  a  departing  regiment  in  your  honorable 
presence  here,  but,  alas!"  She  broke  down  again, 
crying  out  piercingly  that  the  evil  ones  had  come 
meanwhile  in  the  absence  of  the  master  of  the  house, 
and  who  was  there  left  save  helpless  females  to  seek 
the  august  little  one? 

Moonlight's  chin  had  fallen  into  her  hands  again. 
She  seemed  to  think  deeply,  but  the  stricken,  numb 

121 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

look  was  gone.  Two  red  spots  crept  into  her  cheeks, 
and  her  dark  eyes  gleamed  dangerously. 

She  was  rehearsing  in  her  mind  the  words  and 
actions  of  Matsuda  since  his  return.  She  was 
acutely  aware  of  the  base  character  of  the  geisha- 
keeper,  and  recalled  the  many  times  when  she  had 
seen  him  plunged  in  calculating  thought,  pacing 
and  repacing  the  gardens,  gnawing  like  a  rat  at  his 
nails,  and  ever  his  eye  stealing  craftily  to  her. 

Suddenly  there  came  clearly  to  the  geisha  what 
had  possessed  for  days  the  mind  of  the  master. 
Like  an  illuminating  flash  from  the  gods  it  came 
upon  her  what  Matsuda  had  done  with  her 
child. 

There  arose  now  before  her  agonized  vision  the 
cruel,  scornful  face  of  the  fearful  mother-in-law, 
and  beside  it  the  round,  envious,  malicious  coun 
tenance  of  Ohano.  Like  a  meek,  mute  fool,  she  had 
permitted  them  to  drive  her  from  her  rightful — 
yes,  her  legal — home,  because  she  had  not  then 
known  her  full  power.  Now  they  had  stolen  from 
her  the  one  link  that  bound  her  inexorably  to  the 
beloved  dead:  for  Japanese  women  believe  their 
soldiers  dead  until  they  return.  Little  they  knew 
of  the  true  character  of  the  Spider!  She  would 
show  them  that  even  one  of  the  vagabond,  despised 
actor  race  from  which  she  had  come  was  not  to 
be  trodden  upon  with  impunity. 

She  sprang  to  her  feet,  electrified  with  her  new 
122 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

purpose.    The  geishas  scattered,  alarmed  and  fright 
ened,  on  either  side  of  her. 

"Okusama!"  She  caught  at  the  woman's  wan 
dering  attention  as  the  latter  raised  herself  from 
her  prostrate  position  on  the  floor. 

"My  Moonlight?" 

"You  have  jewels — cash,  perhaps!    Speak!" 

The  troubled  brows  of  the  Okusama  drew  to 
gether,  and  the  vague  look  of  wandering  came  back 
to  her  eyes.  Moonlight  dropped  on  her  knees 
opposite  the  woman,  and,  placing  her  hands  on 
her  shoulders,  forced  her  to  look  directly  in  her 
face. 

"Answer  me — speak,  Okusama!" 

As  still  the  poor  creature  regarded  her  vaguely, 
the  geisha  whispered  with  entreating  tenderness: 

"Tell  me— my— mother!" 

Over  the  wild  features  of  the  Okusama  a  gentle, 
wistful  smile  crept. 

"What  shall  I  say?"  she  plaintively  whis 
pered. 

"Name  your  possessions.  He  has  given  you 
jewels,  money  even.  Yes,  it  is  so — is  it  not?" 

The  woman  nodded.  Her  lips  began  to  quiver  like 
a  child  about  to  cry.  The  geishas  and  the  ap 
prentices  had  crowded  in  a  circle  about  them,  and 
now  they  seemed  to  hang  in  suspense  upon  the  words 
of  the  Okusama. 

"It  is — so!"  she  faintly  said. 
123 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"Will  you  not  give  them  to  me?"  pleaded  the 
Spider.  Then,  as  the  woman  drew  back  timorously, 
she  cried:  "Quick,  now,  while  you  remember  where 
they  are!" 

Her  eyes  were  on  the  Okusama's,  hypnotically 
compelling  her.  Slowly  the  woman  tottered  to  her 
feet.  She  staggered  across  the  room,  supported  on 
either  side  by  the  geishas.  She  came  to  the  east 
wall,  felt  along  it  till  her  ringers  found  a  secret 
panel,  pushed  it  aside,  found  an  inner  one,  and  still 
an  inner  one,  and  still  an  inner  one.  Then  she  drew 
out  the  lacquer  safe,  and,  with  a  conciliating  smile 
trembling  over  her  vacant  features,  she  opened  the 
casket  and  poured  the  jewels  into  the  lap  of  the 
Spider.  Moonlight  looked  at  them  with  glitter 
ing  eyes  of  excitement.  Then  she  spoke  to  the 
geishas. 

"You  all  have  heard  of  Oka,  the  great  and  just 
judge  of  feudal  days.  You  know  how  it  was  he 
decided  the  parentage  of  a  child  whom  two  women 
claimed.  He  bade  them  each  take  an  arm  of  the 
girl  and  pull,  and  the  strongest  should  prevail  to 
keep  the  child.  Alas,  the  poor  mother  dared  not 
pull  too  hard  lest  she  hurt  her  beloved  offspring, 
and  preferred  to  resign  her  child  to  the  impostor. 
Thus  the  judge  knew  she  was  the  true  mother. 
Maidens,  in  the  city  of  Kioto  there  are  judges  as 
wise  as  Oka,  but  much  money  is  needed  to  obtain 
the  services  of  those  who  must  bring  the  cases 

124 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

before  them.  Come,  little  Omi,  we  set  out  now 
upon  a  long  and  perilous  journey!" 

"The  gods  go  with  you!"  quavered  the  geishas, 
wiping  their  tears  upon  their  sleeves. 

"Ah,  may  all  the  gods  lead  and  protect  you!" 
sobbed  the  Okusama. 


CHAPTER  XXII 


HEY  were  bathing  the  young  Lord 
Saito  Taro:  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo  and 
a  rosy-cheeked  country  girl  who  had 
recently  entered  the  family's  service. 
Indeed,  the  coming  of  the  child  had  ma 
terially  altered  the  regimen  of  the  household.  The 
servants  that  had  been  cast  aside,  as  a  pious  sifn 
from  the  women  that  they  desired  to  share  their 
lord's  sacrifices  during  war-time,  were  now  restored, 
or  their  places  were  filled  by  new  maids. 

There  was  an  air  of  activity  throughout  the 
entire  estate;  the  maids  bustled  about  swiftly,  the 
chore-boy  whistled  at  his  toil,  and  the  aged  gateman 
looked  up  from  the  great  Western  book  into  which 
he  seemed  to  bury  his  nose  at  all  times. 

The  little  Taro  lay  upon  his  grandmother's  lap, 
and  she  rubbed  his  shining  little  body  with  warm 
towels,  tendered  by  the  admiring  maids. 

There  was  a  curious  change  in  the  face  of  Lady 
Saito.  Almost  it  seemed  as  if  an  iron  had  been 
pressed  across  her  features,  smoothing  away  the 
harsh  and  bitter  lines.  The  eyes  had  lost  their 
angry  luster,  and  seemed  almost  mild  and  peaceful 

126 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

in  expression  as  she  raised  them  for  a  moment  to 
give  an  order  to  the  nursemaid.  She  chuckled 
contentedly  when  the  baby  grasped  at  her  thumb 
and  put  it  into  his  diminutive  mouth,  sucking  upon 
it  with  fervor  and  relish. 

Every  slight  movement  of  its  face  or  body  de 
lighted  and  moved  her  to  an  emotion  new  and  fas 
cinating.  Indeed,  she  was  experiencing  in  the  little 
Taro  all  the  maternal  emotions  she  had  sternly 
denied  herself  with  her  own  son. 

From  the  moment  when  she  had  taken  the  warm 
tiny  body  into  her  arms  everything  within  her 
seemed  to  have  capitulated;  this  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  she  did  not  wish  to  love,  had  not  intended 
to  love,  this  child  of  the  Spider! 

Now  the  Spider,  and  all  the  bitter  animosity  and 
shame  she  had  brought  into  the  proud  family  of 
the  Saitos,  were  forgotten.  This  was  the  child  of 
her  son,  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji!  Its  eyes  were  the 
eyes  of  her  son — its  mouth,  its  chin,  even  its  gentle 
expression;  she  traced  hungrily  every  seeming  like 
ness,  and  proclaimed  the  fact  that  her  son  had 
indeed  been  reborn  to  her  in  the  little  Taro. 

The  youngest  of  the  nursemaids  was  a  bright- 
eyed,  somewhat  forward  girl  who  had  obtained  em 
ployment  recently  by  cajoling  the  honorable  cook, 
now  factotum  of  the  household.  In  the  eyes  of 
Ochika,  wife  of  the  cook,  the  girl  was  an  impudent 
minx,  who  should  have  been  sent  flying  from  a  re- 

127 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

spectable  household.  Ochika  even  penetrated  from 
her  domain  of  the  kitchen,  to  the  presence  of  the 
Lady  Saito  Ichigo,  in  order  to  whisper  into  the 
lady's  somewhat  absent  ear  a  tale  of  unseemly 
dances  and  songs  indulged  in  by  the  nursemaid 
for  the  delectation  of  the  other  servants. 

Omi  (the  nurse-girl's  name)  seemed,  however,  so 
innocent  and  childish  in  appearance  that  the  Lady 
Saito  was  loath  to  believe  her  guilty  of  anything 
more  than  a  naughty  desire  to  tease  Ochika,  whose 
jealousy  of  her  good-looking  husband  was  so  no 
torious  among  the  servants  that  it  was  a  never- 
failing  source  of  both  merriment  and  strife.  What, 
however,  in  Omi  recommended  her  chiefly  to  the 
fond  grandmother  was  the  fact  that  the  honorable 
Lord  Taro  appeared  to  love  her,  and  was  never  so 
happy  as  when  upon  his  nurse's  back. 

Now,  as  Omi  danced  her  hand  playfully  across  his 
round  and  shining  little  stomach,  Taro  roared  with 
delight,  and  tossed  up  his  tiny  pink  heels  in  appro 
bation.  So  noisy,  so  continued,  so  absolutely  joyous 
was  his  crowing  laughter  that  the  face  of  his  grand 
mother  melted  into  a  smile. 

The  smile,  however,  wavered  uneasily  and  was 
soon  suppressed  as  Ohano  silently  entered  the  room. 
The  girl's  face  was  ashen  in  color,  her  eyes  more 
like  mere  slits  than  ever.  She  stood  leaning  against 
the  shoji,  her  expression  sullen  and  lowering,  her 
attitude  similar  to  that  of  a  spoiled  and  angry  child. 

128 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"Ohayo  gozarimazu ! "  murmured  the  mother-in- 
law,  politely;  and  she  was  angrily  aware  of  the  con 
ciliating  tone  in  her  voice,  she  who  was  accustomed 
to  command. 

"Ohayo!"  The  girl  flung  back  the  morning 
greeting,  almost  as  if  it  were  a  challenge. 

"Well,"  said  her  mother,  sharply.  "Be  good 
enough  to  take  the  place  of  Omi.  It  will  do  your 
heart  good  to  rub  the  honorable  body  of  your" — 
she  paused  and  met  the  scowling  glance  of  Ohano — 
"your  lord's  child,"  she  finished. 

Omi  was  tendering  the  towels;  but  Ohano  ignored 
the*  pert  little  maid.  She  crossed  the  room  delib 
erately  and  slowly  sank  upon  her  knees  opposite 
Lady  Saito  and  the  baby.  Omi  was  watching  the 
scene  with  absorbed  interest,  and  she  jumped  at 
the  sharp  voice  of  Lady  Saito. 

"To  your  other  duties,  maiden!"  admonished 
her  mistress,  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  girl  was 
watching  Ohano  intently. 

Alone  with  the  child  and  Ohano,  she  began  in  a 
complaining  voice: 

"Now  it  is  most  uncivilized  to  permit  one's  emo 
tions  to  show  upon  the  honorable  face,  which  should 
be  a  mask  as  regards  all  inner  feelings.  I  advise 
stern  control  of  all  angry  impulses.  Cultivate 
graciousness  of  heart,  and  do  not  forget  each  day 
properly  to  thank  the  gods  for  putting  into  your 
arms  the  honorable  child  of  your  lord." 

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THE     HONORABLE    MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Said  Ohano  in  a  breathless  whisper,  while  her 
bosom  heaved  up  and  down  tempestuously: 

"He  is  the  child  of  the — Spider!  Take  care  lest 
he  sting  thy  breast  too,  mother-in-law!" 

The  older  woman  drew  the  warm  towels  about 
the  baby,  almost  as  if  for  protection. 

"He  is  my  son's  child,"  she  said,  hoarsely.  "Envy 
and  malice  are  traits  we  women  are  warned  repeat 
edly  against  in  the  'Greater  Learning  for  Women.'" 

"He  is  the  Spider's  child!"  almost  chanted  Ohano, 
and  she  put  her  lame  hand  to  her  throat  as  though 
it  pained  her.  "His  eyes  are  identical  with  hers!" 

"Nay,"  said  her  mother-in-law,  gently;  "then 
you  have  not  looked  into  the  eyes  of  the  little  one. 
I  pray  you  do  so,  Ohano.  It  will  soften  your  heart, 
for,  see,  they  are  duplicates  of  the  eyes  of  your  lord ! " 

She  turned  the  child's  head  about  so  that  its 
smiling,  friendly  glance  met  Ohano's. 

For  a  moment  the  latter  stared  at  him,  her  lips 
working,  her  eyes  widened.  The  baby  had  paused 
in  his  laughter  and  was  studying  the  working 
features  of  his  stepmother  with  infantile  gravity. 
Almost  unconsciously,  as  if  fascinated,  she  bent 
lower  above  him,  and  as  she  did  so  he  reached  up  a 
little  hand  and  grasped  at  her  face.  A  smile  broke 
over  his  rosy  features,  displaying  the  two  little 
teeth  within  and  showing  every  adorable  dimple 
encrusted  in  its  fair  features. 

The  breath  came  from  Ohano  in  gasps.  All  of 
130 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

a  sudden  she  threw  up  her  arm  blindly,  almost  a 
motion  of  defense.  Then  with  a  wordless  sob  she 
put  her  face  upon  the  floor.  She  wept  stormily, 
as  one  whose  whole  forces  are  bent  upon  finding  an 
outlet.  For  a  time  there  was  no  sound  in  the  cham 
ber  save  that  of  the  moaning  Ohano. 

The  child  had  fallen  asleep,  and  Lady  Saito  kept 
her  eyes  fixed  upon  his  round,  charming  little  face. 
She  would  let  Ohano's  passion  spend  itself.  These 
daily  outbursts  since  the  coming  of  the  child  were 
becoming  intolerable,  she  thought.  She  had  been 
too  lenient  with  Ohano.  It  would  be  necessary  soon 
to  teach  the  girl  her  exact  position  in  the  household. 

As  she  looked  at  the  beautiful,  sleeping  child 
the  sudden  thought  of  parting  with  it  seized  hor 
ribly  upon  her.  Her  face  twitched  like  some  hideous 
piece  of  parchment  suddenly  animated  with  life. 
Nothing,  she  told  herself  fiercely — neither  the  clam 
oring  voice  of  the  wild  mother,  nor  the  sulky  jealousy 
of  Ohano — should  cause  her  now  to  relinquish  her 
hold  upon  the  descendant  of  the  illustrious  ancestors. 
Let  the  Spider  do  her  worst!  Let  the  vindictive 
jealousy  of  Ohano  betray  to  the  world  the  truth! 
She,  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo,  would  defy  them  all. 
The  gates  of  Saito  should  be  sealed  and  guarded  as 
rigorously  as  if  these  were  feudal  days.  As  for 
Ohano !  She  looked  at  the  girl  with  a  new  expression. 
Between  her  and  the  little  one  resting  upon  her 
bosom  there  could  be  but  one  choice. 

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THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"My  girl,"  she  said  to  Ohano,  finally,  "dry  your 
face,  if  you  please.  It  is  unseemly  for  one  of  gentle 
birth  to  abandon  one's  self  to  passion.  Come,  come, 
there  is  a  limit  to  my  patience!" 

Ohano  sat  up  sullenly,  drying  her  eyes  with  the 
ends  of  her  sleeve.  The  Lady  Saito  was  choosing 
her  words  carefully,  and  her  stern  glance  never 
wavered  as  she  bent  it  upon  Ohano's  quivering  face. 

"Without  my  lord's  child,  Ohano,  you  are  but  a 
cipher  in  the  house  of  the  ancestors.  It  would 
become  necessary  to  serve  you  as  once  we  served 
an  innocent  one  before  you!" 

Ohano's  hand  clutched  at  her  bosom.  She  ap 
peared  to  be  suffocating,  and  could  hardly  speak 
the  words: 

"You  do  not  mean — you  dare  not  mean — that 
you  would  divorce  me!" 

"The  law  is  clear  in  your  case,  as  in  that  of  your 
predecessor,"  said  her  mother,  coldly. 

"I  will  speak  to  my  uncle  Takedo  Isami.  I  will 
address  all  of  my  honorable  relatives.  I  will  tell 
them  with  what  you  have  threatened  me,  the 
daughter  of  samourai !  You  have  compared  me  with 
a  geisha — a  Spider!  It  is  intolerable — not  to  be 
borne!" 

"Nay,"  vigorously  defended  her  mother-in-law. 
"You  speak  not  now  of  a  geisha,  Ohano,  but — of 
— the  mother  of  the  last  descendant  of  the  illustri 
ous  ancestors." 

132 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

A  silence  fell  between  them,  broken  only  by  the 
breathing  of  Ohano — short, ,  gasping,  indrawn  sobs 
which  she  seemed  no  longer  able  to  control. 

Presently,  when  she  was  quieter,  her  mother-in- 
law  put  a  question  roughly  to  the  girl. 

"What  is  it  to  be,  Ohano?  Will  you  accept  the 
child  of  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji,  proclaiming  it  to  be 
your  own,  defying  the  very  world  to  take  it  from 
you,  or — ?" 

Ohano's  face  was  turned  away.  Her  head  was 
swimming,  and  she  felt  strangely  weak.  After  a 
moment  she  said  in  a  very  faint  voice,  as  if  the 
last  trace  of  resistance  within  her  had  been  vic 
toriously  beaten  out  by  her  mother-in-law: 

"I  serve  the  ancestors  of  the  Saito — and  my 
Lord  Saito  Gonji!" 

10 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

IHANO  did  not  leave  her  room  all  of  the 
following  day.  A  maid  brought  word  to 
Lady  Saito  that  her  daughter-in-law 
wished  to  meditate  and  pray  alone. 
Permission  was  somewhat  ungraciously 
granted.  Her  "moods, "  as  Lady  Saito  termed  them, 
had  become  a  source  of  irritation.  However,  the 
proposition  to  "meditate  and  pray"  was  good. 
Ohano,  perchance,  would  profit  by  her  thoughts  and 
emerge  a  reasonable  being. 

At  noon  the  soft-hearted  little  Omi  begged  to 
be  permitted  to  take  tea  and  refreshments  to  Ohano. 
She  was  gone  some  time,  to  the  aggravation  of  her 
mistress,  for  the  little  Taro  was  loudly  demanding 
his  favorite's  return.  When  at  last,  however,  the 
girl  returned,  she  brought  such  a  message  to  her 
mistress  that  the  latter  forgot  everything  else  in 
the  glow  of  satisfaction.  Ohano  asked  for  the 
Lord  Saito  Taro. 

Little  Omi  hurried  out  with  the  child  in  her  arms. 
She  paused  upon  the  threshold  for  a  moment  and 
threw  a  curious  glance  back  at  her  mistress.  Lady 
Saito's  face  was  wreathed  in  smiles,  even  while 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

the  tears  dropped  like  rain  down  her  withered 
cheeks.  The  girl  hid  her  excited  face  against  the 
child's  little  body,  then,  almost  running,  she  sped 
from  the  room. 

It  was  very  lonely  for  Lady  Saito  the  rest  of  that 
day.  She  did  not  wish  to  disturb  Ohano,  but  how 
hungrily  her  heart  longed  for  the  return  of  her 
baby!  How  she  missed  it,  even  during  the  short 
period  it  had  been  gone. 

In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  when  she  had 
fallen  into  a  drowsy  reverie  upon  her  mat,  she  was 
disturbed  by  the  sudden  shoving  aside  of  a  screen 
behind  her.  She  turned  her  head  and  saw  in  the 
aperture  the  agitated  face  of  Kiyo,  the  gateman. 
He  had  fallen  to  his  knees,  and  now  crawled  on 
them  toward  her.  Something  in  his  abject  attitude 
awoke  within  the  breast  of  his  mistress  a  sicken 
ing  fear  of  a  calamity  he  had  come  to  report.  She 
felt  as  if  paralyzed,  unable  either  to  stir  or  to  utter 
a  word. 

Undoubtedly  the  gateman  brought  bad  tidings, 
for  his  place  was  not  in  the  house,  and  it  was  an 
unheard-of  thing  for  one  in  his  position  to  force 
his  way  into  the  august  presence  of  the  mistress. 
She  said  to  herself: 

"He  has  come  to  report  the  death  of  my  dear  son 
or  of  my  husband!" 

Vainly  she  put  back  her  hand  for  the  support  of 
Ohano,  but  the  girl  was  still  secluded  in  her  chamber. 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"Speak!"  she  gasped,  at  last.  "I  command  you 
not  to  hesitate!" 

Despite  the  peremptory  words,  she  was  shaking 
like  one  in  an  illness.  Her  knees  gave  way.  She 
sank  down  upon  them  in  a  collapsed  heap.  She 
looked  entreatingly  at  the  retainer,  who  seemed 
unable  or  unwilling  to  answer  her. 

"You  bring  exalted  and  joyous  news  from  Ten- 
shi-sama!"  she  cried,  brokenly.  "I  pray  you  speak 
the  words!" 

"Nay,  mistress!"  His  tremulous  old  voice  shook, 
and  he  could  not  control  the  shaking  of  his  aged 
limbs.  He  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  Lady 
Saito  since  her  babyhood.  "It  is  of  the  youngest 
Lord  Saito  I  speak!" 

"My  son!     Gonji!" 

"Thy  honorable  grandson,  mistress,"  he  corrected. 

She  stared  at  him,  aghast. 

"Baby-san!"  She  was  upon  her  feet  now,  with 
the  strength  and  savagery  of  a  mother  at  bay.  "He 
is  here  in  the  shiro!" 

The  gateman  looked  at  her  mutely. 

"He  has  been  stolen — by  the  maiden  Omi.  It 
is  said  she  was  in  the  service  of  the  first  Lady  Saito 
Gonji." 

For  a  moment  Lady  Saito  stared  at  the  man  with 
unbelieving  eyes.  Suddenly  she  clapped  her  hands 
loudly,  but  no  smiling-faced,  sharp-tongued  Omi 
came  running  fleetly  to  her  service.  Only  the 

136 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

swollen  -  eyed  wife  of  the  cook  crept  into  the 
room. 

' '  Thou  knowest  where — "  She  could  not  continue. 
Her  words  choked  her. 

"Nay,  I  do  not  know,"  burst  out  Ochika.  "She 
was  an  imp  of  the  lowest  Hades.  Maledictions 
upon  her!  May  Futen  tear  her  flesh!" 

"Hush!"  cried  Lady  Saito,  with  a  sudden  violence; 
and  almost  aloud  she  shouted  the  words: 

"It  is  the  rod  of  the  gods!  From  the  decree  of 
Heaven  there  is  no  escape!" 

She  became  conscious  that  Ohano  was  beside  her. 
She  looked  at  the  girl  strangely,  and  as  she  did  so 
something  in  Ohano's  eyes  revealed  the  truth  to  her. 
She  shrank  from  her  daughter-in-law  with  a  motion 
almost  of  loathing. 

' '  Why,  Ohano ! "  she  cried.  ' '  It  was  thou  who  sent 
for— it  is—" 

Ohano  turned  from  her  abruptly  and  moved 
briskly  toward  the  gateman. 

"It  was  thy  duty,"  she  haughtily  censured,  "to 
pursue  and  seize  the  woman." 

"Her  feet  had  wings,  august  young  mistress. 
With  the  honorable  young  lord  upon  her  back  she 
fairly  flew  by  the  gates,  as  if  possessed  of  infernal 
power." 

"And  thou  art  very  old!"  said  the  Lady  Saito, 
gently.  "Thy  ancient  limbs  are  unable  to  compete 
with  the  fleet  wings  of  a  mother's  love!" 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


]T  the  evening  meal,  which  was  served 
upon  an  open  balcony  because  of  the 
intense  heat,  Ohano  kept  her  eyes  as 
siduously  upon  her  food.  The  mood  of 
her  mother-in-law  had  changed.  There 
was  nothing  gentle  in  her  expression  now  as  she 
savagely  stabbed  at  the  live  fish  upon  her  plate, 
speared  it  in  just  the  proper  place,  and  then  lifted 
a  morsel  of  the  still  palpitating  flesh  upon  her 
chop-stick. 

"This  is  excellent  fish,  Ohano,"  she  said,  pleasantly. 
"Come,  taste  a  morsel  while  the  live  flavor  is  still 
upon  it.  Possibly  it  will  remind  you  of  the  brevity 
of  life.  Now  we  are  here,  possessed  of  tempestuous 
passions  and  emotions — for  even  a  fish,  so  it  is  said, 
has  the  soul  of  a  murderer.  Then  just  think,  one 
sharp  pick  of  the  knife — or  sword — and,  like  the 
honorable  fish,  we  are — gone!  The  devils  of  hatred, 
envy,  desire,  and  malice  can  no  longer  torture 
us!" 

Ohano  said  nothing.  She  gave  one  swift  glance 
at  the  fish,  then  turned  away,  nauseated. 

Lady  Saito  grunted  and  fell  to  eating  her  meal 
138 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

as  if  hungry.     Presently,  filled  and  refreshed,  she 
began  again: 

"Of  course  it  must  be  very  plain  to  you,  Ohano, 
that  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  Saitos  to  regain 
possession  of  my  son's  child  unless  we  take  into 
our  household  the  mother  also." 

Ohano  sat  up  with  a  start,  and  as  her  mother- 
in-law  continued,  the  expression  of  intense  fear  on 
her  face  deepened. 

"I  know  of  no  law  in  Japan — and  I  have  been 
advised  in  the  matter — by  which  we  can  forcibly  take 
a  child  from  its  mother,  in  the  absence  of  its  father." 

Ohano  did  not  move.  She  moistened  her  dry 
lips,  and  her  eyes  moved  furtively.  She  watched 
her  mother-in-law's  face  with  a  mute  expression,  half 
of  terror  and  half  of  defiance.  In  the  going  of  the 
hated  child  of  the  Spider,  Ohano  had  not  found  the 
relief  she  had  expected.  Nay,  there  loomed  before 
her  now  the  possibility  of  a  greater  menace  to  her 
peace  of  mind.  She  felt  the  weight  of  the  older 
woman's  tyrannical  will  as  never  before.  She 
stammered : 

"Pardon  my  dullness.  I  do  not  understand  your 
words." 

"It  is  better,"  counseled  the  other,  sternly,  "that 
you  not  alone  understand  my  words,  but  that  you 
study  them  well!  Think  awhile,  Ohano!" 

For  a  time  there  was  silence  between  them;  then 
Lady  Saito  continued : 

i39 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"It  is  my  wish,  it  is  the  wish  of  the  ancestors, 
that  the  honorable  descendant  of  the  Saitos  be 
housed  here  in  the  home  of  his  fathers.  If  it  is 
impossible  to  have  my  son's  son  without  the  legal 
custodian  of  his  body,  then  we  must  face  the  matter 
gracefully,  and  solicit  her,  humbly  if  need  be,  to 
come  also!" 

"That — would  be — impossible!"  gasped  Ohano. 

"Nay,"  protested  her  mother,  coldly,  "it  is  done 
every  day  in  Japan.  The  honorable  Moonlight  will 
not  be  the  first  divorced  wife  who  has  been  again 
received  in  the  home  of  the  parents-in-law.  You 
forget  that  until  recently  there  was  even  a  custom 
among  many  families  where  the  wife  failed  in  her 
duty  to  supply  children  to  her  husband,  for  an 
honorable  concubine  to  be  chosen  in  her  place  duly 
to  serve  her  lord." 

Ohano  tried  to  smile,  but  it  was  a  ghastly  effort. 

"That  is  an  ancient  custom.  It  is  no  longer 
tolerated  in  Japan.  It  would  be  a  matter  of  no 
torious  gossip.  We  could  not,  with  honor,  she  and 
I,  live  under  the  same  roof  together." 

"That  is  true,"  admitted  Lady  Saito,  calmly,  and 
now  she  met  Ohano's  eyes  firmly. 

"I  refuse  to  be  'returned,'  "  cried  Ohano,  shrilly. 
"My  honorable  relatives  will  not  permit  you  to 
divorce  me  for  such  a  cause.  It  is  not  possible  to 
treat  me  in  the  manner  accorded  a  geisha!" 

"That,  too,  is  true,"  quietly  assented  her  mother- 
140 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

in-law.  "We,  the  Saitos,  desire  to  remain  on  terms 
of  friendship  with  your  most  honorable  family. 
Now,  therefore,  we  look  to  you,  Ohano,  for  a  solution 
of  the  problem.  You  are  right.  These  are  not  the 
times  when  honorable  men  maintain  concubines 
under  the  same  roofs  as  their  wives.  We  wish  to 
impress  the  Western  people  with  our  morality! 
Ha!"  she  broke  off,  to  laugh  bitterly.  "We  follow 
the  code  set  by  them.  Yet  what  are  we  to  do  when 
confronted  by  such  a  condition  as  exists  in  our 
household  now?  When  a  wife  is  childless,  it  is 
surely  an  excellent  rule  which  allows  a  humble  one 
to  bear  the  offspring  and  put  them  into  the  arms  of 
the  exalted  but  childless  wife.  But  we  can  do  this 
no  longer.  Our  war  with  Russia — our  victories, 
which  are  proclaimed  daily — will  make  these  matters 
all  the  more  a  sensitive  point  with  the  nation. 
We  must  live  according  to  the  code  set  down  by 
the  Westerners,  as  I  have  said.  They  have  taught 
us  to  fight!  Our  people  desire  to  imitate  their 
virtues!"  She  laughed, in  hoarse  derision.  Then 
she  continued: 

"We  bow,  then,  to  this.  It  cannot  be  helped. 
Now,  as  we  cannot  take  the  honorable  Lord  Taro 
by  force  from  his  mother,  and  we  cannot  permit 
two  wives  of  my  son  to  remain  under  the  one  roof, 
we  must  seek  some  other  solution  of  our  problem. 
Can  you  not  offer  some  suggestion?" 

"It  is  possible,"  said  Ohano,  "that  the  Lord 
141 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Saito  Gonji  may  not  give  up  his  life  for  Tenshi- 
sama.  Many  soldiers  return.  In  that  event — " 
She  stammered  piteously.  "I  am  young  and  very 
healthy.  I  will  bear  him  children  yet!" 

"We  cannot  count  upon  so  unlikely  a  contingency, 
my  girl.  We  Japanese  women,  when  we  sacrifice  our 
men  to  the  Emperor's  service,  pray  that  they  may 
not  return!  It  is  a  pious,  patriotic  prayer,  Ohano. 
Be  worthy  of  it,  my  girl.  Duty  and  honor  to  the 
ancestors  are  the  watchwords  of  our  language." 

"Duty — and  honor!"  repeated  Ohano,  slowly. 

A  long  silence  fell  between  them,  during  which 
Ohano 's  eyes  never  left  the  face  of  her  mother-in- 
law.  A  sick  terror  assailed  her,  so  that  she  could 
not  move,  but  sat  there  rigidly,  nursing  her  lame 
arm.  What  dreadful  project,  she  asked  herself, 
did  the  stern  mother-in-law  now  meditate,  that  she 
should  look  at  the  unhappy  Ohano  with  such  a 
peculiar,  commanding  expression? 

Finally  the  older  woman  said,  with  quiet  force: 

"Ohano,  you  come  of  illustrious  stock.  There 
have  been  women  of  your  race  who  have  found  a 
solution  to  problems  more  tragic  than  yours.  I 
pray  you  reflect  upon  the  text  of  the  samourai, 
which,  as  you  know,  was  as  binding  upon  the  women 
as  the  men:  'To  die  with  honor,  when  one  can  no 
longer  live  with  honor!"1 

She  stood  up,  and  leaned  heavily  upon  her  staff. 

"Let  me  recommend,"  she  added,  softly,  "that 
142 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

you  study  and  emulate — and  emulate" — she  repeated 
the  last  word  with  deadly  emphasis — "the  lives  of 
your  ancestors!" 

Ohano's  mouth  had  dropped  wide  open.  She 
came  to  her  feet  mechanically,  and  mechanically  she 
backed  from  her  mother-in-law  until  she  came  to 
the  farthest  screen;  and  against  this  she  leaned  like 
one  about  to  faint. 

Her  mother-in-law's  voice  seemed  to  reach  her 
as  from  very  far  away,  and  also  it  seemed  to  Ohano 
that  a  smile,  jeering  and  cruel,  was  on  the  aged 
woman's  face,  marking  it  like  a  livid  scar.  It  was 
as  if  she  cried  to  Ohano: 

"I  challenge  you,  as  the  daughter  of  a  samourai, 
to  do  your  duty!" 

Ohano  gasped  out  something,  she  knew  not 
what. 

"Ho!"  cried  Lady  Saito,  fiercely,  "it  does  not 
matter  to  the  true  daughter  of  a  samourai  whether 
the  days  of  suppuku  are  passed  or  not.  We  take 
refuge  too  much  behind  the  new  rules  of  life.  The 
spark  of  heroes  is  imperishable.  If  you  are  a  worthy 
daughter  of  your  ancestors  it  is  still  within  your 
insignificant  body ! " 

Said  Ohano,  with  chattering  teeth: 

"I — I — will — go — to  the  go-down  (treasure-house), 
honorable  mother-in-law,  and  study  the  swords  of 
my  ancestors.  I  pray  you  ask  the  gods  to  give  me 
strength!" 

i43 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

When  she  was  gone,  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo  sum 
moned  a  maid.  To  her  she  said  curtly: 

"You  will  bid  the  Samourai  Asado" — it  was  the 
first  time  in  years  she  had  referred  to  this  old 
retainer  as  "samourai" — "unlock  the  doors  of  the 
honorable  go-down.  The  Lady  Saito  Gonji  would 
examine  the  treasure-chests  of  her  ancestors!" 


CHAPTER  XXV 

N  the  go-down  itself,  Ohano's  courage 
deserted  her  completely.  As  the  stone 
doors  of  the  go-down  were  pushed  aside, 
and  she  stepped  into  the  darkened  cham 
ber  with  its  odor  almost  as  of  dead 
things,  a  sense  of  unconquerable  repugnance  and 
terror  assailed  her. 

From  every  side,  gleaming,  softly  smiling  almost, 
in  the  light  of  the  setting  sun,  the  ancient  relics  of 
bygone  days  were  heaped.  Almost  it  seemed  as  if 
these  beautiful  objects  were  living  things,  their  bur 
nished  and  lacquered  bodies  afire  in  the  darkened 
chamber. 

Slowly,  fearfully,  staggering  as  she  walked,  Ohano 
made  her  way  between  rows  of  this  piled-up  treasure, 
the  wealth  and  pride  of  the  house  of  Saito. 

Now  she  had  come  to  where  the  possessions  of 
her  own  honorable  family  were  set.  Trembling  in 
every  limb,  hovering  and  hesitating  above  it,  she 
at  length  unlocked  and  opened  an  ancient  chest. 
Fearfully  she  looked  down  into  its  depths,  then  felt 
below  the  heavy  layers  of  silk.  Presently,  with  her 
poor,  lame  hand,  Ohano  brought  up  a  single  sword. 

US 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

It  was  very  long.  The  hilt  was  of  lacquer,  a 
shining  black.  The  ferrule,  guard,  cleats,  and  rivets 
were  inlaid  and  embossed  with  rare  metals.  The 
beautiful  blade,  as  brittle  as  an  icicle,  seemed  to 
shine  in  the  darkened  chamber  with  its  noble 
classic  beauty,  and  it  awoke  in  the  breast  of  the 
agitated  Ohano  a  new  sensation — one  of  awe,  of 
reverence  and  pride! 

She  held  it  in  the  light  that  came  through  the 
still  open  door,  and  for  long  she  looked  at  it  with 
widened,  fascinated  eyes. 

It  seemed  to  her  that  some  chanted  song  of 
proud  and  noble  achievements  rang  in  her  ears,  as 
if  the  whispering  ghosts  of  her  ancestors  were  urging 
her  on. 

"Courage!"  they  cried  to  her.  "The  gods  love 
thee  now!" 

She  pricked  her  wrist  to  test  her  strength.  Then 
she  screamed  harshly,  like  one  who  has  lost  his  senses. 
The  sword  dropped  with  a  clank  upon  the  stone 
floor.  Ohano  fled  from  the  go-down  like  one  pos 
sessed. 

With  the  blood  streaming  from  her  hands  and 
marking  her  progress  with  its  ruddy  drops,  she  sped 
across  the  gardens  and  into  the  house.  No  one 
stopped  her;  no  one  even  called  to  her.  All  had  been 
sent  away  by  orders  of  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo. 

Alone  again  in  her  chamber,  with  her  breath 
coming  in  agitated  gasps,  her  wrist  burning  with  an 

146 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

unbearable  pain,  weak  from  the  loss  of  blood,  she 
swayed  by  the  shoji,  her  dry  lips  reiterating  the 
common  prayer  of  the  devout  Buddhist:  "Namu, 
amida,  Butsu!"  (Save  us,  eternal  Buddha!) 

Suddenly  she  felt  something  cool  placed  within 
her  hands,  and  her  fingers  were  pressed  gently  but 
forcibly  about  the  object.  It  was  the  sword  she 
had  left  behind.  A  superstitious  fear  assailed  her 
that  the  gods  had  perceived  her  weakness  and  in 
exorably  had  placed  the  sword  within  her  hands, 
demanding  of  Ohano  that  she  do  her  duty. 

Within  the  girl's  breast  a  new  emotion  arose — 
the  ambition  to  prove  to  all  the  ancestors  that 
within  her  weak  and  insignificant  body  yet  glowed 
the  spark  of  heroism;  that  she  was,  after  all,  a  true 
daughter  of  the  samourai. 

Her  hands  acquired  a  miraculous  steadiness  and 
strength.  She  set  the  sword  firmly  before  her, 
point  up.  Grasping  it  with  both  hands  about  the 
middle,  she  dumbly,  and  with  a  certain  dignity  and 
even  grace,  rested  her  body  upon  it.  Slowly  she  sank 
down  the  full  length  of  the  blade. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

IEANWHILE,  within  the  war-torn  heart 
of  Manchuria,  the  last  words  of  Ohano 
came  up  to  torment  the  soldier.  His 
days  and  nights  were  made  horrible  by 
the  imagined  reiteration  in  his  ears  of 
the  words  of  Ohano. 

By  the  light  of  a  hundred  camp-fires  he  saw  the 
face  of  Moonlight,  the  wife  he  had  discarded  at  the 
command  of  the  ancestors.  He  tried  to  picture  it 
as  he  had  first  seen  her,  with  that  peculiar  radiance 
about  her  beauty.  She  had  appeared  to  him  then 
like  to  some  rare  and  precious  flower,  so  fragile 
artd  exquisite  it  seemed  almost  profanation  to 
touch  her.  How  he  had  desired  her!  How  he  had 
adored  her! 

He  recalled,  with  anguish,  the  first  days  of  their 
marriage — a  mixture  of  exquisite  joy  and  pain; 
then  the  harrowing,  heartbreaking  months  that  had 
followed — the  metamorphosis  that  had  taken  place 
in  his  beautiful  wife.  How  timid,  meek,  submissive, 
they  had  made  her  in  those  latter  days!  He  paced 
and  repaced  the  ground,  suffering  torments  incom 
parably  worse  than  those  of  the  wounded  soldiers. 

148 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

To  think  of  Moonlight  as  an  inmate  of  the  Yoshi- 
wara,  as  Ohano  had  insisted,  the  last  resource  of 
the  most  abandoned  of  lost  souls,  was  to  arouse  him 
to  an  inner  frenzy  that  no  amount  of  action  in  the 
bloodiest  encounters  could  even  temporarily  efface. 

He  began  to  count  the  days  which  must  pass 
before  his  release.  He  knew  by  now  that  the  war 
was  soon  to  end.  Already  negotiations  were  under 
way.  At  first  he  had  bitterly  regretted  the  fact 
that  the  gods  had  not  mercifully  permitted  him  to 
give  up  his  life;  now  he  realized  that  perchance 
they  had  saved  it  for  another  purpose — the  purpose 
of  finding  his  lost  wife.  He  would  devote  the  rest 
of  his  life,  he  promised  himself,  to  this  undertaking; 
and,  ah!  when  once  again  they  two  should  meet, 
nothing  should  part  them. 

Theyx  would  go  away  to  a  new  land — a  better  land 
even  than  Japan — of  which  he  had  heard  so  much 
from  a  friend  he  had  made  out  here  in  Manchuria. 
There  men  did  not  cast  off  their  wives  because  they 
were  childless.  There  no  cruel  laws  sacrificed  an 
innocent  wife  at  the  demand  of  the  dead.  There 
there  were  no  licensed  dens  of  inquity  into  which 
the  innocent  might  be  sold  into  a  bondage  lower 
than  hell  itself! 

Gonji  dreamed  unceasingly  of  this  land  of  promise, 
whither  he  intended  to  go  when  once  he  had  found 
his  beloved  Moonlight. 

Incognito,   finally,   the   Lord   Gonji   returned   to 
11  149 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

Japan.  He  did  not,  as  became  a  dutiful  and  honor 
able  son,  proceed  straightway  to  his  home,  there 
to  permit  the  members  of  his  family  to  celebrate 
and  rejoice  over  his  return. 

At  last  Lord  Gonji  felt  free  of  the  thrall  of  the 
ancestors.  He  was  a  son  of  the  New  Japan,  master 
of  his  own  conscience  and  deeds.  The  old  strict 
code  set  down  for  men  of  his  class  and  race  he  knew 
was  medieval,  childish,  unworthy  of  consideration. 
Hitherto  his  actions  had  been  governed  by  the 
example  of  the  ancestors  and  by  order  of  those  in 
authority  over  him.  Now  he  was  free — free  to 
choose  his  own  path;  and  his  path  led  not  to  the 
house  of  his  fathers. 

It  led,  instead,  to  that  "hell  city"  which  had 
been  imprinted  so  vividly  upon  his  mind  that  even 
in  the  heart  of  Manchuria  he  had  seen  its  lights  and 
heard  its  brazen  music. 

From  street  to  street  of  the  Yoshiwara,  and  from 
house  to  house,  now  went  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji, 
scanning  with  eager,  feverish  eyes  every  pitiful  little 
inmate  thus  publicly  exhibited  in  cages.  But  among 
the  hopeless,  apathetic  faces  that  smiled  at  him 
with  enforced  beguilement  was  not  the  one  he 
sought. 

He  turned  to  other  cities,  wherever  the  famous 
brothels  were  maintained,  leaving  for  the  last  his 
home  city  of  Kioto,  where  once  the  Spider  had 
been  the  darling  of  the  House  of  Slender  Pines. 

150 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

How  his  haughty  relatives  had  despised  her 
calling;  yet  how  desirable,  how  infinitely  superior 
it  was  in  every  way  to  the  one  to  which  they  had 
perhaps  driven  her. 

The  geisha  was  protected  under  the  law,  and  her 
virtue  was  in  her  own  hands.  She  could  be  as  pure 
or  as  light  as  she  chose.  Not  even  the  harshest  of 
masters  could  actually  drive  her  to  the  degradation 
of  the  inmates  of  the  Yoshiwara,  who  were  sold 
into  bondage  often  in  their  babyhood. 

If  he  could  but  believe  that  Moonlight  was  now 
in  the  House  of  Slender  Pines!  Yet  his  agents  had 
insisted  she  had  not  returned  to  her  former  home: 
moreover,  they  had  supported  the  contention  of 
Ohano,  that  undoubtedly  it  was  into  some  such  resort 
that  the  unhappy  outcast  had  finally  been  driven. 

Upon  a  day  when  the  inmates  of  the  Yoshiwara 
of  Kioto  were  upon  their  annual  parade,  when  the 
city  was  swept  by  a  paroxysm  of  patriotic  enthu 
siasm  over  the  return  of  the  victorious  troops, 
Saito  Gonji,  worn  and  wearied  from  his  vain  quest 
through  many  cities,  returned  at  last  to  his  home  city. 

The  streets  were  in  holiday  dress.  From  every  roof- 
tree  and  tower  the  sun-flag  tossed  its  ruddy  symbol 
in  the  air.  The  people  ran  through  the  streets  as 
if  possessed,  now  cheering  the  passing  soldiers,  now 
waving  and  shouting  to  the  happy  paraders,  and  all 
following,  some  taunting,  some  cheering  the  long 
line  of  courtezans  of  the  Yoshiwara. 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

They  marched  in  single  file,  their  long,  silken 
robes,  heavily  embroidered,  held  up  by  their  maids, 
and  accompanied  by  their  diminutive,  toddling  ap 
prentices,  often  little  girls  as  young  as  six  and  seven. 

Yet,  small  as  they  were,  each  was  a  miniature 
reproduction  and  understudy  of  her  mistress,  in 
her  elaborate  coiffure  with  its  glittering  ornaments 
(the  geisha  wears  flowers),  her  obi  tied  in  front,  and 
the  thick  paste  of  paint  laid  lividly  from  brow  to 
chin.  Some  day  it  would  be  their  lot  to  step  into 
the  place  of  the  ones  they  emulated,  and,  in  turn, 
slaves  would  hold  their  trains  and  masters  would 
exhibit  them  like  animals  in  public  cages. 

Gonji  followed  the  long  train  of  courtezans  for 
miles.  Sometimes  he  would  run  ahead,  and,  walking 
backward,  pass  down  the  long  line,  scanning  every 
face  piercingly  and  letting  not  one  escape  his  scru 
tiny.  And,  as  he  studied  the  faces  of  these  "hell 
women,"  as  his -countrymen  had  named  them,  for 
the  first  time  Gonji  forgot  his  beloved  Moonlight. 
The  words  of  the  American  officer  he  had  met  in 
the  campaign  in  Manchuria  came  up  vividly  to  his 
mind: 

"No  nation,"  the  American  had  said,  "can  honor 
ably  hold  its  head  erect  among  civilized  nations,  no 
matter  what  its  prowess  and  power,  so  long  as  its 
women  are  held  in  such  bondage;  so  long  as  its 
women  are  bartered  and  sold,  often  by  their  own 
fathers,  husbands,  and  brothers,  like  cattle." 

152 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

A  great  and  illuminating  light  broke  upon  the 
tempest- tossed  soul  of  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji.  He 
would  erect  an  imperishable  monument  to  the 
memory  of  his  lost  wife.  She  should  be  the  in 
spiration  for  the  most  knightly  act  that  had  ever 
been  performed  in  the  history  of  his  nation. 

It  should  be  his  task  to  effect  the  abolishment  of 
the  Yoshiwara !  He  would  devote  his  life  to  this  one 
great  cause,  and  never  would  he  abandon  it  until 
he  had  succeeded.  This,  and  the  revision  of  the 
inhuman  and  barbarous  laws  governing  divorce, 
should  be  his  life-work. 

He  would  show  the  ancestors  that  there  were 
deeds  even  more  worthy  and  heroic  than  those  of 
the  sword. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

F  Ohano's  relatives  were  aware  of  the 
manner  of  her  death,  they  gave  no  sign. 
Such  of  the  male  members  of  the  family 
and  of  her  husband's  as  were  not 
serving  in  the  war  stolidly  attended 
the  funeral  of  their  kinswoman,  and  shortly  Ohano 
was  honorably  interred  in  the  mortuary  halls  of  the 
Saito  ancestors. 

There  had  been  expressions  of  sorrow  over  her 
passing,  but  these  were  largely  perfunctory.  Ohano 
had  been  an  orphan;  and,  as  she  had  lived  all  of  her 
life  in  the  Saito  house,  her  husband's  people  had 
really  been  nearer  to  her  than  her  own  family. 
Her  uncle,  Takedo  Isami,  was  possibly  the  only  one 
of  her  relatives  who  had  known  the  girl  with  any 
degree  of  intimacy,  and  at  this  time  he  too  had 
entered  the  war  service. 

Many  offerings  and  prayers  were  put  up  for  Ohano, 
and  in  the  end  the  relatives  quietly  dispersed  to 
their  homes,  leaving  the  silent  and  prim  old  Lady 
Saito  alone  in  the  now  almost  deserted  mansion. 
She  shut  herself  into  the  chamber  of  the  dead  girl, 
and  for  several  days  not  even  her  personal  maid  was 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

permitted  to  intrude  upon  her  voluntary  retirement. 
Whatever  were  the  thoughts  that  tormented  and 
haunted  the  mother-in-law  of  Ohano,  she  emerged, 
in  the  end,  still  resolute  and  stern,  though  her  hair 
had  turned  as  white  as  snow. 

From  day  to  day  now  the  aged  lady  crouched 
over  the  kotatsu,  warming  her  withered  old  fingers, 
lighting  and  relighting  her  pipe,  and  always  seeming 
to  listen,  to  watch  for  some  one  she  expected  to 
return. 

Couriers  and  agents  had  been  despatched  by  her 
orders  to  the  city  in  search  of  Moonlight  and  her 
child.  There  was  nothing  left  for  the  Dowager 
Saito  to  do,  save  to  wait.  Not  for  a  moment  had  she 
considered  the  possibility  that  her  servants  might 
be  unable  to  find  the  one  they  sought,  or,  having 
found  her,  fail  to  induce  the  geisha  to  return  to 
the  house  of  the  Saitos.  To  keep  her  mind  from 
brooding  over  Ohano,  she  endeavored  to  force  it  to 
remain  fixed  upon  one  matter  only — the  recovery 
of  her  son's  child. 

But  the  days  passed  away,  the  chill  season  of 
hoar  frost  swept  the  trees  bare  of  leaf  and  color, 
and  the  silently  moving  servants  set  the  winter 
amado  (wooden  sliding  walls)  in  place;  and  still, 
with  a  stony,  frozen  look  upon  her  face,  the  Lady 
Saito  waited. 

Gradually  the  proud  and  strong  spirit  within  her 
began  to  weaken  under  the  strain.  Supported  by 

i55 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

a  maid  on  either  side,  she  toiled  up  the  mountain 
slope  to  visit  the  temple  endowed  by  her  family, 
and  to  seek  advice  and  comfort  there.  In  broken 
words,  her  voice  stammering  and  shaking,  she  whis 
pered  a  confession  to  the  chief  priest,  and  entreated 
him  to  help  her  with  spiritual  advice  and  prayers. 

Though  the  lives  of  the  priests  are  devoted  largely 
to  meditation  and  the  study  of  the  sacred  books, 
they  are  by  no  means  ignorant  of  what  passes  about 
them.  The  chief  priest  of  the  Saito  temple  knew 
every  detail  of  the  casting  out  of  the  first  wife;  he 
knew,  moreover,  what  had  been  the  end  of  Ohano. 
As  the  family  had  not,  up  to  the  present,  however, 
sought  his  advice  in  the  matter,  he  had  expressed 
no  opinion. 

An  acolyte  had  quite  recently  come  to  the  chief 
priest  with  a  strange  story.  It  concerned  a  very 
beautiful  geisha  who  seemed  in  deep  distress,  who, 
with  her  maiden  clinging  to  her  skirt  and  a  baby 
upon  her  back,  had  asked  the  boy  to  direct  them 
toward  a  certain  small  temple  where  an  ancient 
priestess  of  the  Nichi  sect  had  lived.  The  acolyte 
had  been  unable  to  direct  the  geisha;  and,  to  his 
surprise  and  distress,  the  two  had  climbed  higher 
up  the  mountain  slope,  with  the  evident  intention 
of  penetrating  farther  into  the  interior.  Both  the 
priest  and  the  acolyte  had  waited  anxiously  for  the 
return  of  the  wanderers,  for  they  knew  there  were 
no  sheltering  places  in  the  direction  the  pair  had 

156 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

taken,  and  the  weather  had  turned  very  cold.  It 
was  not  the  season  for  an  infant  to  be  abroad. 
Now  the  chief  priest  called  the  acolyte  before  him 
and  requested  the  boy  to  repeat  his  story  to  the 
Lady  Saito  Ichigo. 

She  listened  with  mixed  feelings;  and  when  the 
boy  was  through  he  chanced,  timidly,  to  raise  his 
eyes  to  the  face  of  the  exalted  patroness  of  the 
temple,  and,-  as  he  afterward  informed  the  priest,  he 
saw  that  great  tears  ran  down  the  stern  and  fur 
rowed  cheeks  of  the  lady,  nor  could  she  speak  for 
the  sobs  that  tore  her. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

HE  trees  had  dropped  their  leaves,  and, 
with  naked  arms  extended,  seemed  to 
speak  voicelessly  of  the  winter  almost 
come.  Only  the  evergreen  pines  kept 
their  warm  coats  of  green,  and  under 
their  shade  the  travelers  found  a  temporary  refuge 
from  the  wind  and  the  cold,  piercing  rain. 

Moonlight  had  been  very  sure  that  they  had 
climbed  the  hill  in  which  was  hidden  the  retreat  of 
the  nun  who  had  previously  harbored  her,  and  where 
she  knew  she  could  find  a  refuge  to  which  not  even 
the  agents  of  the  Saito  might  penetrate.  But  Kioto 
is  surrounded  by  hills  on  all  sides,  and  the  geisha 
had  lost  her  way. 

With  the  little  Omi  to  run  before  her  and  sell  to 
the  chance  passer-by  or  pilgrim,  for  a  sen  or  two,  the 
jewels  of  the  crazed  wife  of  Matsuda,  or  to  beg  rice 
and  fish  from  charitably  disposed  temples,  they  had 
subsisted  thus  far. 

At  first  she  had  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  entreaties 
of  her  maiden,  that  they  go  to  the  city  below  rather 
than  to  the  bleak,  deserted,  autumn  hills.  But 
now,  as  the  penetrating  rain  searched  down  through 

158 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

even  the  wide-spreading  branches  of  the  pine-trees, 
her  heart  ached  heavily. 

Omi,  shivering  against  her  mistress's  side,  began 
to  cry,  and  recommenced  her  prayers  to  return  to 
the  city  below.  The  troops  were  returning,  and 
even  here  on  the  quiet  hillside  the  sound  of  the 
beating  drum,  the  wild  and  hoarse  singing,  and 
cheering  of  the  soldiers  and  the  citizens  was  heard. 

"Why  perish  in  the  cold  hills?"  asked  the  little 
apprentice-geisha,  "when  the  warm,  happy  city 
calls  to  us?  Oh,  let  us  go!  Let  us  go!" 

Feeling  the  cold  hands  of  her  baby,  the  geisha 
shivered;  yet  as  she  looked  off  hungrily  to  where 
the  little  maiden  pointed  she  felt  a  sense  of  strong 
reluctance  almost  akin  to  terror.  It  was  down 
there  they  were  looking  for  her,  she  knew.  There 
they  would  take  from  her  the  honorable  child  of 
her  beloved  lord. 

"How  much  colder  it  is  getting,"  reproached  Omi, 
crossly;  "and  see,  graciousness,  your  kimono  is  not 
even  padded." 

"Undo  my  obi,  Omi.  Wrap  it  about  yourself 
and  his  lordship.  It  is  seven  yards  long,  and  will 
protect  you  both  amply." 

"But  you,  sweet  mistress?  I  will  not  take  your 
obi.  Your  hands  are  cold.  The  august  clogs  are 
broken  even!" 

She  knelt  to  tie  the  thong  firmer,  and  while  still 
kneeling  Omi  continued  her  beseeching. 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

"Now,  if  we  start  downward,  we  shall  travel  much 
quicker.  I  will  bear  his  lordship  on  my  back.  We 
can  reach  the  city  in  less  than  a  night  and  a  day. 
I  know  a  little  garden  just  on  the  outskirts  of  Kioto. 
There  we  can  spend  the  night.  With  warm  rice 
and  sake  and — " 

"Hush,  Omi,  it  is  impossible." 

Omi  threw  back  her  head  and  began  to  wail 
aloud,  just  as  a  child  would  have  done.  The  burden 
of  her  cry  was  that  she  was  cold,  very  cold,  and  she 
was  very  sure  that  they  would  all  perish  in  the  wet 
and  horrible  mountains.  The  geisha  tried  vainly 
to  quiet  her.  At  last  she  said: 

"Omi,  if  you  love  me,  be  patient  for  yet  another 
day.  If  to-morrow  we  do  not  find  the  shrine  of  the 
honorable  nun,  then — then — "  her  voice  broke,  and 
she  turned  her  face  away.  Omi  caught  at  her  hand 
and  clung  to  her  joyously. 

"Oh,  you  have  promised!"  Then,  as  she  saw  the 
distress  of  her  mistress,  she  cried  out  remorsefully 
that  she  was  prepared  to  follow  her  wherever  she 
desired  to  go — yes,  even  if  it  should  prove  to  be 
the  highest  point  of  the  mountains,  said  the  little 
maid.  After  a  moment,  as  the  geisha  made  no  re 
sponse,  Omi,  already  regretting  her  generous  out 
burst,  sighed  heavily  and  declared  it  was  very  hard. 
She  sat  back  on  her  heels,  upon  the  damp  ground, 
and  looked  off  plaintively  toward  the  city  below. 
How  she  longed  for  the  bright  lights  of  the  geisha- 

160 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

house,  the  chatter  and  the  movement,  the  dance  and 
the  song,  the  warm  quilt  under  which  was  hidden  the 
glowing  kotatsu,  close  to  which,  Omi  knew,  the 
geishas  would  creep  at  night  for  comfort.  As  she 
felt  the  drizzling  rain  and  wind  and  saw  nothing 
but  the  dark  trees  about  her,  her  little  head  drooped 
upon  her  breast,  and  she  began  to  sob  drearily  again. 

Suddenly  the  Spider  bent  above  the  child  and 
patted  her  softly  upon  the  head. 

"Play  a  little  tune  upon  your  samisen,  my  Omi, 
and  I  will  sing  to  you  a  little  song  I  myself  have 
composed  to  the  honorable  baby-san." 

Instantly  Omi's  face  cleared.  Crouched  upon  her 
heels,  looking  up  adoringly  at  her  mistress,  she 
picked  upon  her  instrument,  and  while  the  cold 
rain  dripped  down  upon  them  the  Spider  sang: 

Neneko,  neneko,  ya! 

Sleep,  my  little  one,  sleep, 
As  the  bottomless  pit  of  the  ocean, 

So  is  my  love  so  deep! 

Neneko,  neneko,  ya! 

Sleep,  my  little  one,  sleep! 
As  the  unexplored  vasts  of  Nirvana, 

So  is  my  love  so  deep! 

As  the  softly  crooning  voice  of  the  dancer  stole 
out  upon  the  air  a  little  cortege  which  had  found 
its  way  up  the  intricate  mountain-path  halted  there 
in  the  woods.  In  silence  the  runners  dropped  the 
shafts  of  the  vehicles.  Supported  by  her  maids, 

161 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

the  Lady  Saito  alighted,  and  tottered  painfully  up 
the  hill-slope.  She  stood  very  still  when  she  saw 
that  little  group  under  the  tree,  and  began  to  tremble 
in  every  limb. 

The  little  Omi  saw  her  first,  and  with  a  cry  of 
fear  threw  her  arms  protectingly  about  her  mistress, 
thrusting  her  thin  little  body  before  her,  as  if  to 
shield  the  beloved  one  from  harm.  Now  Moonlight 
saw  her,  and  for  a  moment  she  remained  unmoving, 
staring  at  the  old  figure  standing  there  unprotected 
in  the  drizzling  rain,  with  arms  half  extended, 
the  withered  old  face  full  of  an  appeal  she  had  not 
yet  found  the  courage  to  utter. 

As  she  looked  at  the  once  dreaded  lady,  Moon 
light  was  conscious  of  a  sense  of  great  calmness  and 
strength.  No  longer  was  her  being  flooded  with 
the  wild  impulses  of  resentment  and  hatred  toward 
her  mother-in-law.  She  knew  not  why  it  was  so, 
but  her  heart  felt  barren  of  all  feeling  save  one  of 
overwhelming  pity. 

Her  voice  was  as  calm  and  gentle  as  though  she 
had  always  been  a  lady  of  high  caste,  who  had  never 
known  a  turbulent  emotion. 

"Thou  art  unprotected  from  the  rain.  I  pray 
you  take  my  place,  honorable  Lady  Saito!" 

Now  she  was  at  the  side  of  the  other,  leading 
her,  waiting  upon  her.  Under  the  sheltering  arms  of 
the  great  pine-trees,  so  near  to  each  other  that 
their  shoulders  touched,  these  two,  who  had  once 

162 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

hated  each  other  so  deeply,  looked  at  one  another 
with  white  faces. 

Said  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo,  with  quivering  lips: 

"I  have  made  a  long  journey!" 

Said  Moonlight,  calmly: 

"You  come  to  seek  your  son's  son?" 

"Nay,"  said  the  aged  woman,  and  she  put  out 
a  trembling  hand  and  caught  beseechingly  at  the 
arm  of  the  geisha.  "I  have  come  for  thee,  too, 
my  daughter!" 

A  silence,  unbroken  save  by  the  sobs  of  the 
little  Omi,  fell  now  between  them.  Then  said  the 
geisha,  very  gently: 

"Speak  your — will — all-highest  one.  I — I  will 
try  to — to  serve  the  honorable  ancestors  of  the 
Saito,  even  though  it  be  necessary  to  make  the 
supreme  sacrifice." 

Her  hands  fumbled  with  the  strings  that  bound 
the  child  in  its  bag  upon  her  back.  Now  she  had 
swung  it  round  in  front.  The  child's  little  face, 
rosy  in  sleep,  rolled  back  upon  her  arm.  She  felt 
the  hungry  arms  of  the  woman  beside  her  reaching 
out  irresistibly  toward  the  child;  and,  though  she 
tried  to  smile,  a  sob  tore  from  her  lips  as  she  lifted 
her  baby  and  put  it  solemnly  into  the  arms  of  its 
grandmother.  Then  she  turned  her  back  quickly, 
and  Omi  sprang  up  and  received  her  into  her 
arms. 

Suddenly  she  felt  the  shaking  fingers  of  the  aged 
163 


THE     HONORABLE    MISS     MOONLIGHT 

woman  upon  her  shoulder.  She  said,  with  her 
face  still  hidden  and  her  voice  muffled  by  sobs: 

"I  pray  you  go,  hastily,  lest  my  love  prove  greater 
than  my  strength." 

"The  journey  is  long,"  said  Lady  Saito.  "Let 
us  set  out  at  once,  my  daughter.  I  go  not  back 
without  thee." 

Slowly  Moonlight  put  the  sheltering  arms  of  Omi 
from  her  and  turned  and  looked  wistfully,  almost 
hungrily,  at  her  mother-in-law. 

"It  is — unnecessary,"  she  said,  gently.  "I  pray 
you  forgive  the  dissension  I  have  already  caused 
in  your  honorable  family.  Say  to  Ohano,  from  me, 
that  though  it  is  not  possible  for  me  to  give  to  her 
the  one  who  has  given  to  me  his  eternal  vows,  yet 
gladly  I  resign  to  her  my  little  son." 

A  curious  look  was  on  the  face  of  the  mother-in- 
law.  For  a  long  moment  she  stood  staring  up 
blankly  at  the  geisha.  Then  she  said,  in  a  tone  of 
deadly  quiet : 

"My  daughter  Ohano  has  gone  upon — a  journey!" 

"A  journey!"  repeated  the  geisha,  lowly.  Then, 
as  she  saw  that  look  upon  the  other's  face:  "Ah, 
you  mean  not  surely  the  Long  Journey  to  the 
Meido?"  she  cried  out,  piteously.  Lady  Saito's  head 
dropped  upon  her  breast.  Moonlight  felt  over 
whelmed,  dazed,  awed.  Ohano  gone!  Ohano,  the 
strong,  the  triumphant  one! 

"I  entreat  you  to  come  with  me  now,"  said 
164 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

Lady  Saito,  simply.  "It  was  the  wish  of  Ohano 
that  you — that  you  should  take  her  place."  She 
paused,  and  added  quietly:  "It  was  she,  my  daugh 
ter,  who  made  a  place  for  you  in  the  house  of  the 
ancestors." 

They  had  lifted  her  into  the  carriage.  Her  head 
fell  back,  and  she  began  to  weep  slow,  painful  tears 
that  crept  down  her  face  and  dropped  upon  the 
hands  of  her  maiden.  Said  the  latter,  joyously: 

"See  how  the  gods  love  you,  sweet  mistress. 
See  how  they  have  avenged  you.  See  how  they 
destroy  your  enemies  and — " 

"Do  not  speak  so,"  cried  her  mistress  entreat- 
ingly.  "Only  the  gods  themselves  are  competent  to 
judge  us.  I  do  not  weep  for  myself,  but  for  Ohano, 
who  has  been  ruthlessly  thrust  out  upon  the  Long 
Journey.  I  would  that  I  could  take  her  place;  but 
all  that  I  can  do  to  help  her  is  to  go  to  the  shrines 
daily  and  beseech  the  gods  to  make  easy  the  travels 
of  Ohano." 

12 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

T  was  the  season  of  greatest  cold.  The 
hills  of  Kioto  were  enwrapped  in  a  gar 
ment  of  snow,  and  with  the  glistening 
sun  upon  them  they  looked  as  beautiful 
as  a  dream.  The  pines  and  hemlocks 
seemed  to  spread  out  their  dark-green  arms,  as  if 
to  support  the  glorified  burden. 

The  gateman  of  the  Saito  shiro,  squatting  upon  his 
heels,  with  his  face  buried  in  the  great,  absorbing 
book  of  the  West,  chanced  to  look  up  over  his  bone- 
rimmed  glasses,  and  saw  a  lone  traveler  coming  on 
foot  along  the  path  which  led  to  the  lodge  gates. 
Kiyo  hobbled  down  to  the  gates  just  as  the  visitor 
reached  them.  In  a  high,  thin  voice  the  ancient 
gateman  challenged  the  traveler.  Then,  as  the 
latter  did  not  respond  to  his  call,  but  peered  up  at 
him  curiously  and  suddenly,  the  old  retainer  began 
to  tremble  so  violently  that  his  shaking  hands  could 
hardly  unbar  the  gates. 

As  the  young  man  entered,  Kiyo  dropped  upon 
his  knees,  and  bumped  his  bald  head  repeatedly 
upon  the  frozen  ground,  emitting  strange  little  cries 

166 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

of  excitement  and  joy  over  the  return  of  the  long- 
absent  one. 

Deeply  touched,  Gonji,  who  had  always  loved  old 
Kiyo,  bent  over  the  gateman,  patting  his  head,  and 
finally  even  assisting  him  to  his  feet.  He  inquired 
solicitously  after  the  health  of  Kiyo  and  his  kindred, 
and  then  asked  how  his  own  family  now  were. 
Kiyo  had  answered  joyously  and  willingly  all  the  in 
quiries  of  his  master  touching  upon  his  own  kinsfolk, 
but  at  the  questions  regarding  the  family  he  served 
he  became  suddenly  constrained  and  wretched.  His 
silence  apparently  but  aroused  the  further  curiosity 
and  anxiety  of  Gonji.  He  persisted,  his  voice  be 
coming  almost  peremptory  in  tone. 

"I  condescended  to  ask  you  regarding  the  health 
of  my  family.  You  do  not  answer  me,  good  Kiyo- 
sama!  Is  there  sickness,  then,  within  the  shiro?" 

"lya,  iya!  (No,  no!)"  hastily  protested  Kiyo. 
"All  is  well.  It  is  good  health  within  the  shiro, 
praise  be  to  the  gods!" 

Still  his  questioner  noted  something  strange  about 
the  manner  in  which  the  gateman  avoided  his 
glance.  He  studied  old  Kiyo  curiously,  as  though 
from  his  own  sad  reveries,  in  which  he  had  been 
absorbed  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else,  he  had  been 
reluctantly  aroused  at  the  thought  of  possible 
danger  to  his  people.  Gonji  had  hardened  his 
heart,  as  he  thought,  against  the  ones  who  were  re 
sponsible  for  his  unhappiness — nay,  who  had  delib- 

167 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

erately  cast  forth  a  pure  and  beautiful  soul.  Never 
theless,  he  experienced  a  sense  of  uneasiness  at  the 
thought  that  all  had  not  been  well  with  them. 

"Come,"  he  urged.  "Do  not  hesitate  to  confide 
in  your  master,  good  Kiyo-sama.  Tell  me  the  news, 
be  it  good  or  bad." 

' '  All  is  well.  All  is  well, ' '  almost  sobbingly  chanted 
the  gateman.  "I  pray  you  enter  the  shiro.  There 
you  will  see  for  yourself." 

Gonji  turned  a  bit  uneasily  toward  the  house, 
then  halted  abruptly. 

"I  read  in  your  face,"  he  said,  "a  tale  of  some 
calamity  to  my  family.  Already  I  know  of  my 
father's  glorious  sacrifice  for  Tenshi-sama" — bowing 
as  he  spoke  the  Mikado's  name — "for  I  was  with  my 
father  at  the  end.  So  if  it  is  that — but  no,  there  is 
something  else  troubling  you,  Kiyo.  I  know  you 
too  well  not  to  read  your  face.  Is  it  my  mother?" 

His  voice  broke  slightly,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
years  he  was  conscious  of  a  sense  of  tenderness 
toward  his  mother.  She  had  been  the  main  source 
of  all  his  misery;  but  she  loved  him.  This  Gonji 
knew,  despite  all. 

Again  Kiyo  hastened  to  reassure  him,  this  time 
eagerly  and  proudly. 

"lya,  master.  Thy  mother  is  in  excellent  health. 
Happy,  moreover,  as  never  before,  with  the  honor 
able  Lord  Taro,  thy  son,  embraced  within  her 
arms!" 

168 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

The  young  man  was  staring  at  him  now  strangely. 
He  seemed  unable  to  speak  or  move.  A  look  as  of 
almost  troubled  awakening  was  in  the  face  of  Gonji. 
It  was  as  if  a  thought,  long  thrust  aside,  had  sud 
denly  recurred  to  him.  During  all  these  agonizing 
months,  when  he  had  wandered  about  from  city 
to  city,  he  had  been  possessed  with  but  one  idea — 
the  finding  of  his  wife.  Now,  suddenly,  the  gate- 
man's  words  came  to  him  as  a  very  revelation. 
Strange  that  he  had  not  even  thought  upon  this 
matter  since  he  had  left  Japan.  He  was  a  father! 

"It  is — possible!"  he  gasped.     "I  have  a — " 

"Son!  Gloriously  a  son,  master!"  cried  Kiyo, 
grinning  joyously. 

The  young  man  continued  to  stare  almost  in 
credulously  at  the  gateman,  but  in  his  face  was  no 
reflection  of  the  joy  visible  in  that  of  the  faithful 
retainer.  He  was  overwhelmed  with  the  sense  of  a 
new  emotion  whose  very  sweetness  tore  at  his 
heart,  and  brought  unbidden  tears  to  his  eyes. 

Suddenly,  against  his  will  even,  there  came 
vividly  before  his  mind's  eye  a  vision  of  Ohano 
as  he  had  seen  her  last,  crawling  upon  her  knees 
toward  him  and  beating  her  hands  futilely  together, 
as  she  besought  him  piteously  to  permit  her  to 
attend  him  through  the  dark  paths  that  led  to  the 
Lotus  Land. 

How  the  gods  had  comforted  the  unloved  wife, 
was  his  thought,  and  with  it  came  a  sense  of  over- 

169 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

whelming  grief  and  bitterness  that  they  had  not 
shown  a  similar  charity  toward  the  beloved  Moon 
light.  He  pictured  Ohano,  cherished,  protected, 
praised,  within  the  honorable  house  of  Saito,  with 
the  long-desired  heir  of  all  the  illustrious  ancestors 
upon  her  bosom.  Then  his  mind  reverted  to  the 
wandering  outcast,  Moonlight,  and  a  lump  rose 
stranglingly  in  his  throat.  As  he  made  his  way 
blindly  toward  the  house,  all  the  pride  and  joy  of 
fatherhood,  which  had  uplifted  him  as  on  a  flood 
but  a  moment  since,  seemed  to  drop  from  him  no  less 
suddenly,  leaving  him  as  before,  hopeless,  uncom- 
forted,  and  utterly  forlorn. 

Within  the  shiro,  the  Lady  Saito  Ichigo  sat 
drowsily  swaying  by  the  hibachi,  ceaselessly  smok 
ing,  and  muttering  incoherent  prayers  for  the  soul 
of  her  lord  and  for  Ohano's.  She  was  very  feeble, 
helpless,  and  childish  now.  Her  body  had  lost 
much  of  its  vigor,  and  the  sternness  which  had  once 
made  her  so  formidable  seemed  to  have  entirely 
left  her. 

Moonlight's  dark  eyes  rested  upon  her  with  an 
expression  of  both  pity  and  anxiety.  Suddenly  she 
pushed  the  little  Taro  along  the  smoothly  matted 
floor  and  whispered  coaxing  words  into  the  child's 
ear.  He  crawled  along  several  paces  till  he  came 
behind  his  grandmother.  By  grasping  her  obi  at 
the  back  he  was  enabled  to  pull  himself  to  his 
feet.  Now  his  chubby,  warm  little  face  nestled  up 

170 


THE     HONORABLE     MISS     MOONLIGHT 

against  Lady  Saito's  neck.  The  pipe  dropped  from 
her  mouth  and  fell  unheeded  upon  the  hearth. 
She  turned  hungrily  toward  the  child  and  drew 
him  passionately  to  her  breast. 

Outside  the  screens  Gonji  had  paused,  unable 
either  to  enter  or  to  retire.  He  had  resolved,  at  what 
ever  cost,  to  resume  his  forlorn  wanderings  in  search 
of  the  lost  one,  ere  finally  he  should  take  up  the 
abolition  of  the  Yoshiwara  —  a  task  which  had 
seemed  to  be  assigned  to  him  by  the  very  gods  them 
selves.  But  before  going  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  have  a  last  interview  with  his  mother,  and  with 
Ohano,  the  mother  of  his  child! 

Nevertheless  he  paused  outside  the  screens, 
feeling  unable  to  combat  the  sense  of  reluctance 
and  repugnance  to  joining  that  little  family  he 
knew  was  within.  How  long  he  remained  outside 
the  shoji  he  could  not  have  told.  He  debated  the 
advisability  of  withdrawing  without  their  knowl 
edge  of  his  presence.  Kiyo  would  keep  the  secret. 
So  would  Ochika,  whose  loud  outcry  at  his  advent 
he  had  quickly  silenced.  Gonji  felt  sure  his  brief 
visit  might  bring  merely  unrest  and  unhappiness. 
It  would  be  kinder  both  to  Ohano  and  to  his  mother 
to  go.  As  his  resolve  became  fixed,  he  was  swept 
with  an  anguished  longing  and  desire  at  least  to 
see,  but  once,  the  face  of  the  son  the  gods  had  gra 
ciously  given  him. 

With  infinite  caution,  lest  the  sound  might  be 
171 


THE    HONORABLE     MISS    MOONLIGHT 

heard  by  those  within,  he  began  to  scratch  with 
his  nail  upon  the  fusuma,  till  gradually  he  had 
made  a  small  aperture,  and  to  this  he  applied  his 
eye. 

He  remained  motionless  at  the  shoji.  He  saw, 
within,  the  toddling  child,  as  it  made  its  swift  way 
across  the  room  toward  its  grandmother;  he  heard 
the  sob  of  his  mother  as  she  took  the  child  into  her 
embrace;  then  he  saw  the  face  of  Moonlight  lifted 
alertly  and  turned  toward  where  her  husband's 
face  was  pressed  against  the  screen.  She  alone 
had  heard,  and,  intuitively,  had  guessed  the  truth. 
She  came  slowly  to  her  feet,  her  lips  apart,  her  wide 
eyes  dark  and  beautiful  with  emotion  and  excite 
ment. 

Suddenly  the  man  outside  the  screens  became  ani 
mated  with  the  strength  almost  of  a  madman.  He 
tore  violently  at  the  sliding  wall,  crushing  it  into 
its  groove.  Now  he  was  upon  the  threshold  of  the 
room. 

His  mother  screamed,  hoarsely,  wildly.  But  his 
glance  went  over  her  head  and  by  the  little  wonder 
ing  child,  who  had  crawled  toward  him.  Gonji  saw 
nothing  in  the  world  save  the  face  of  that  one 
who  had  rushed  to  meet  him. 

It  was  much  later  that  they  told  him  of  Ohano.  At 
first  the  girl's  sacrifice,  for  his  sake  and  that  of  the 
ancestors,  brought  from  him  only  an  exclamation 
of  pity;  he  seemed  unable  to  appreciate  the  facts 

172 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

of  the  matter.  There  was  no  room  for  a  shadow 
upon  his  happiness  now.  They  were  sitting  in  the 
sunlight,  that  came  in  a  golden  stream  through 
the  latticed  shoji,  piercing  its  way  even  through  the 
amado.  They  said  little  to  each  other,  but  upon 
their  faces  was  a  radiance  as  golden  as  the  sunlight. 

Suddenly  a  tiny  shape  flickered  across  the  outer 
wall.  It  seemed  but  a  moving  speck  at  first  upon 
the  water-colored  paper;  but  so  insistently  did  it 
beat  against  the  wall  that  the  family  perceived  it 
was  an  insect  of  some  kind. 

Gonji  arose  and  looked  at  it  curiously,  where  it 
fluttered  against  the  outside  of  the  paper  wall. 

"Why,  it  is  a  cicada — and  at  this  time  of  year!" 
he  said. 

Lady  Saito  laid  her  pipe  upon  the  hibachi  and 
hobbled  across  to  her  son's  side,  and  Moonlight 
and  the  little  Taro  pressed  against  him  on  the 
other.  They  all  watched  the  moving  little  shape 
outside  with  absorbed  interest  and  wonder. 

"I  dreamed  of  a  cicada  last  night,"  said  Lady 
Saito,  uneasily.  "It  kept  flying  at  my  ears,  whis 
pering  that  it  could  not  rest.  It  is  a  bad  sign. 
Open  the  shoji,  my  son.  We  can  catch  it  with  the 
sleeve." 

He  pushed  the  screen  partly  open,  and  the  cicada 
crept  along  the  lacquered  latticed  wall,  beating  its 
little  wings  and  sliding  up  and  down. 

Lady  Saito  slapped  at  it  with  the  end  of  her 
i73 


THE    HONORABLE    MISS    MOONLIGHT 

long  sleeve,  but  it  fled  to  the  top  of  the  wall.  She 
beat  at  it  with  a  bamboo  broom,  and  presently  it 
fluttered  down  and  fell  upon  the  floor. 

They  all  hung  over  the  curious  little  creature, 
and  as  they  examined  it  an  oppressive  feeling  of 
sadness  crept  upon  them. 

"How  strange  is  this  little  cicada,"  murmured 
Moonlight,  troubled.  "See,  one  of  its  little  wings 
is  much  smaller  than  the  other." 

"It  is  a  bad  sign,"  repeated  the  mother,  gloomily; 
and  she  made  as  if  to  step  upon  the  little  creature, 
when  Moonlight  grasped  at  her  arm  and  drew  her 
back. 

"Do  not  kill  it!  Do  not  kill  it!"  she  cried,  in 
sudden  excitement.  "Oh,  do  you  not  see — it  is 
Ohano,  poor  Ohano !  She  has  returned  to  us  in  this 
way.  There  is  a  message  she  wishes  to  bring  us." 

Even  as  she  spoke  the  cicada  ceased  its  fluttering 
and  lay  very  still.  A  silence  fell  upon  the  Saito 
family.  They  were  oppressed  with  the  sense  of 
being  in  the  presence  of  one  dead. 

Said  the  Lord  Saito  Gonji,  in  a  very  gentle 
voice : 

"What  can  it  be  my  wife  wishes?  I  would  gladly 
resign  my  happiness  if  I  could  but  make  easier  the 
lot  of  Ohano." 

"She  was  always  anxious  about  her  next  birth," 
whispered  his  mother.  "Perhaps  she  desires  a 
Buddhist  service  especially  for  her  spirit!" 

i74 


THE  HONORABLE  MISS  MOONLIGHT 

Moonlight  had  tenderly  lifted  the  little  body 
and  put  it  into  a  small  box. 

"Come,"  she  said,  simply.  "We  must  set  out  at 
once  for  the  temple.  The  good  priest  will  perform 
the  Segati  service,  and  we  will  bury  Ohano's  little 
body  in  the  grounds  of  the  temple.  There  surely 
it  will  rest  in  peace!" 


THE     END 


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